Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

A Princeton man has been banished from town for three years, for harassing his ex-girlfriend, her mother and her new partner over a period of four years.

Kevin Frederick Lynch, 46, pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and was sentenced in April in Penticton court, according to a decision published online this week.

In his judgement, Justice Gregory Koturbash called the punishment “rare” and in most cases “fundamentally wrong to foist one community's problem onto another.”

But he countered, “it would be wrong, having regard to Mr. Lynch's history, not to utilize every tool available to the court to try and prevent a continuation of the harassment.”

Two days after Lynch and his girlfriend broke up, in Aug. 2011, he was spotted by the victim and her mother outside their home at 3:30 a.m., leaving a note on her car stating “F--k off and die.”

Lynch broke windows on the his ex’s home, slashed her new boyfriend’s tires, and repeatedly sent text messages and phone calls, threatening to kill her new boyfriend.

One such text message read; “I cannot deny I hate [new boyfriend] more than anyone. The next time I see him alone I will engage him in combat.”

Another read; “As long as the two of us are in town, his luck will run out.”

At one point, Lynch broke into the new couple’s home, said, "I will kill you, b--ch," and fled. However, charges from the break and enter were stayed, because neither the victim or her boyfriend were willing to testify because of their fear of Lynch, who had threatened to have them harmed if they did testify.

He also assaulted the new boyfriend on a different occasion, but charges were not laid for the same reason.

After pleading guilty to criminal harassment in Sept. 2016, he was released on a bail condition that he not go within 50 km of Princeton. He was caught violating that order just six days later, arrested, and held in custody.

Lynch still has another 15 months in prison to serve before being released, at which point he will be placed on probation for three years, including the order exiling him from Princeton.

Lynch, who is on social assistance and lived at home with his mother, fought the banishment order by claiming he needed to care for her.

“The three victims continue to reside in Princeton on an acreage some distance from any immediate police response,” Koturbash reasoned, noting that Lynch has 15 previous criminal convictions.

The judge added that an electronic monitoring bracelet would not be possible, because Lynch does not have a cell phone.