A 41-year-old man from Bristol has been banned from contacting MP Dawn Primarolo after threatening to hound her out of office.

Peter John Lear, of Queenshill Road in Knowle, was given a two-year restraining order at Bristol Magistrates' Court yesterday after being found guilty last month of harassing the Bristol South MP, who is also the children's minister, and her staff.

Lesley Ness, prosecuting, told the court Ms Primarolo had replied by letter to Lear last year, stating she was unable to help him with a legal query.

Due to the nature of his answer phone messages, the MP also politely asked Lear not to contact her office again.

But the court heard how Lear persisted in contacting Ms Primarolo with increasingly abusive telephone calls to her secretary Colin Smith at the Labour MP's constituency office in Bristol between February and May last year.

Ms Ness said: "He left a message on her answer phone saying he would hound her out of office. He also placed a message on Facebook, which he said was a 'shot across her bows' in a follow-up phone call."

She also pointed out to the court that Lear was prone to obsessive behaviour and had previously attracted restraining orders in relation to contacting certain members of Bristol City Council and a local housing association.

Defending, Guy Percival told the court: "There was no direct contact with Dawn Primarolo and no threats of violence."

He explained Lear had a history of mental health problems and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.

District Judge Ms Bop a-Rai decided a community penalty order was not suitable in the circumstances but that the court should honour a previous expectation given to Lear that he would escape a jail sentence.

Instead, the judge opted for a fine of £100 plus £350 costs and a £15 victim surcharge in addition to the two-year long restraining order.

She told Lear, who was present at court and smartly dressed: "In my view (a restraining order) is justifiable and proportional in relation to your previous behaviour."

Lear is forbidden from contacting Ms Primarolo, her secretary Colin Smith or any of her staff and from visiting her constituency office in Bristol.