Judge sentences man to send his ex-girlfriend compliments

A Hawaiian judge has handed down an unconventional sentence to a man who violated a court order banning him from contacting his ex-girlfriend. Daren Young now has to write 144 compliments about his former partner, to make up for the 144 times he attempted to contact her with “nasty” messages.

When the couple split in February, Young’s ex-girlfriend sought a protection order to prevent Young from contacting her. Nevertheless, the 30-year-old attempted to call and text his former partner 144 times within a three-hour period on 22 May, says The Maui News.

He was arrested and spent 157 days in jail before his court hearing on Friday, where Judge Rhonda Loo ordered him to be kind.

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“I don’t know whether I should cut off your fingers or take away your phone to get you to stop texting,” Loo said. “You probably shouldn’t get a phone, period. I hope she changed her number.”

“For every nasty thing you said about her, you’re going to say a nice thing. No repeating words.”

Young has 144 days to write all the compliments.

He was also ordered to pay $2,400 (£1,800) in fines and perform 200 hours of community service. He promised the court he would not contact his ex-girlfriend again and said he was ready to move forward with his life and take care of his mother, who recently had a stroke.

Some Twitter users critisised the decision as giving Young more opportunities to harrass the woman.

Others said that jail time might be easier than the task at hand:

While others simply poked fun at the unusual sentence: