Stalker escapes prison after sinister pursuit of salon boss

A sinister stalker who travelled across Britain to pursue a salon boss he had never met has been banned from contacting her ever again.

Imrie Piroth, 43, became infatuated with Sarah Bennett, 29, after seeing a picture of her on Instagram.

Piroth, who is originally from Hungary but lives in London, then embarked on a stalking campaign which saw him travel nearly 3000 miles to see Sarah, regularly taking a 10-hour bus trip to Glasgow.

When he was caught by police, he had her picture as his phone screensaver and a hand-drawn map showing her home and where she walked her dog.

Sarah was so scared she thought she was going to die at Piroth’s hands and was left feeling like a prisoner due to the his actions.

She said she felt “violated” and “terrified” after learning Piroth made several trips from his home in London to Sarah’s workplace, Bennetts Hair and Beauty Salon, in Giffnock, after spotting her on the social media site.

The Hungarian, who only speaks broken English, would travel via Megabus to see Sarah.

In letters, Piroth said Sarah had “very unique beauty” and was “15/10 beautiful”.

Stalked by a stranger: Obsessed man travels to Scotland after seeing salon boss online

Sarah was forced to leave the home she shared with courier husband Andrew Hart, 31, and move back in with her parents as Piroth knew so much about her life, whereabouts and routines.

She became increasingly stressed by the ordeal, which placed her safety, well-being and even her business under threat.

But she took to the stand to give evidence against Piroth in his trial at Paisley Sheriff Court last month.

We told how Piroth was found guilty of engaging in a course of conduct which caused Sarah fear and alarm by viewing her social media profiles, repeatedly attending at her work and loitering outside, staring at her, sending her letters and uploading letters on to Instagram.

Sentence was deferred for background reports and Piroth returned to the dock for sentence.

His lawyer, Kirsty McGeehan, said: “He has come to realise what he’s done is completely unacceptable. He wants to apologise to Miss Bennett and her family.”

As he spared Piroth jail and placed him on a community payback order, Sheriff Tom McCartney said: “This caused substantial fear and alarm to Miss Bennett, as it would to any reasonable person.

“If you had any similar previous convictions you would be facing a prison sentence today.

“I will also make a non-harassment order. You are not to approach or contact or attempt to approach or contact Sarah Bennett in any way, and that includes social media.

“There is not, and never has been, any form of relationship or normal contact between you and Sarah Bennett and therefore this order shall be made for an indefinite period.”

Piroth will be supervised by social workers for two years and has nine months to carry out 200 hours’ unpaid work.

Speaking after he was convicted, Sarah said: “I felt violated that someone had come in to my life like that.

“There’s never been any communication there at all, there’s never been any sort of dialogue.

“That’s what I think is the really scary part – someone that you’ve never uttered a word to tries to impose themselves in your life.

“I thought he was going to come in here and try and murder me.”