A man convicted of breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s Mount Pearl home and attacking her in front of her two young children has lost his appeal.

39-year-old Benji Barnes was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for the violent October 2018 incident which shocked the community.

Barnes broke in and went straight to the woman’s bedroom where she was watching TV with her children, aged four and six. He barred the children from the room, threatened to kill her and the kids, assaulted her, and forced her to have sex.

The courts never bought Barnes’ argument that the woman invited him over. Instead, the trial judge boiled it down to a man desperate to get back together with a woman who didn’t want to.

On appeal, Barnes argued there was no proof he actually broke into the house to do what he did, but the court said the charge was proven because she didn’t invite or want him there.

The court also rejected Barnes’ claim that the judge favoured the woman’s evidence over his.

They said while there were some inconsistencies all around, none of it compared to Barnes’ initial statement that he wasn’t even at the woman’s house that night.