A JAIL sentence has been handed to a man who harassed a family home in a bid to get permission to date a 13-year-old when she came of age.

Nathan Patterson, of Arbour Close, Reading, pleaded guilty to stalking and harassment in December last year.

Reading Crown Court heard that the 36-year-old would consistently ring the doorbell of a family’s home in the middle night as well as standing near the property multiple times across a two-week period.

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Prosecuting, Jonathan Sank said Patterson believed the girl to be 16 years old and said he was visiting the house because he wanted to ask her father if he could ask the girl out when she turned 21.

He was told by officers to stop visiting the address but continued to show up more than 35 times in December before he was subsequently arrested.

Mr Sank said: “When he was interviewed by police he said he was aware he’s not allowed to go the address but the reason for going there was he wanted to speak [to the father] about his daughter and he wanted to tell them that he’s not a nonce.”

While in custody, Patterson wrote a letter to the girl reading: “I wish to have a future with you and I will try to support you.”

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By being arrested for harassment, Patterson was in breach of a suspended sentence he received in November 2022 for the possession of an imitation firearm.

Mr Sank told the court that officers attended his home address on October 20 after his mother called police stating Patterson had taken drugs and was being ‘violent and aggressive’.

Officers found Patterson in his bedroom where he grabbed what police believe at the time to be a firearm but was in fact a pellet gun.

Patterson aimed the pellet gun at officers who eventually disarmed him. He told police he didn’t know why he did it and stressed that he didn’t intent to hurt anyone.

He received an eight-month sentence suspended for 18 months.

Defending, James Keeley said: “[The harassment] was short lived. It’s only a matter of two weeks or so. It’s the defendant’s use of Class A drugs that are getting him in trouble.

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“It affects his ability to think straight. He sadly lost his mother in February and it’s an awful situation for him to be in having lost his mother while being incarcerated.”

Sentencing for the harassment and breach, Judge Sarah Campbell jailed him for eight months.