A WOMAN broke the terms of a restraining order after her children were not returned from a visit to their father, a court has heard.

Megan Teresa Barber pleaded guilty when she appeared before magistrates in Hereford charged with harassment after breaching the order, which prevented her from going within 100 metres of her former partner's Bromyard home.

The court heard that on May 12, Barber, of Avening Close, Worcester, had attended the property of her former partner, who is now in a relationship with Barber's sister.

The couple had been looking after Barber's three children and had failed to return them to her on time.

She banged on a window and shouted through the letterbox, asking to see her children.

But by visiting the property she had breached the terms of a restraining order imposed in December last year.

A complaint was made to the police and 29-year-old Barber left the property without her children.

Mr Halt, for Barber, said that at the time, she had been happy for her former partner to see their children.

But when they were not returned to her by the agreed time of 5pm on the Sunday she became worried, and by 7pm, she had decided to go and retrieve the children herself.

"She was frantic and she thought a game was being played on her," Mr Halt said.

"One of the children missed a school trip because of it, and it was almost a week later that she got the children back after calling social services."

Barber was handed a six-month conditional discharge. She was ordered to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £20.