A serial stalker has narrowly avoided jail after repeatedly harassing a former girlfriend, 16 years after they broke up.
It comes after, just last year, Slowomir Zalewsky was sent to prison and issued with a five-year protection order after hounding two other women.
Despite that, he started repeatedly calling and contacting his latest victim between February and April this year.
The 52-year-old was issued with the five-year Stalking Protection Order so that women are protected from his predatory, unwanted, fixated and obsessive behaviour, but the Polish national ignored it and started bombarding one of his former partners with calls and texts.
A court heard he turned up at her home in Maidstone despite her telling him she wanted no contact.
He also got in her car on one occasion, screaming that she had ruined his life.
Zalewsky of James Whatman Way, Maidstone, initially denied the latest stalking allegation when he appeared in the dock, but changed his plea to guilty when he appeared in court on May 23.
He was remanded and, on June 25, appeared at Margate Magistrates’ Court via video link from prison to hear his fate.
Lucie Fish, prosecuting, said: “It’s a single charge to be sentenced today, which is stalking causing serious alarm or distress between February 1 and April 22.
“They were in a previous relationship, but that ended some time ago in 2009.
“She continued to support him due to his decline in mental health, but then this became unmanageable to her. She made it clear to him she did not want to continue contact with him, but he continued to contact her and refused to leave her alone.
“He made a significant volume of calls even though she blocked him, and he also attended her home and left her a present, and on one occasion, he was sitting in a car outside her home.”
Magistrates also heard that on other occasions, Zalewsky would turn up and be seen near her address and would call her multiple times a day, even though she kept blocking the different numbers he called on.
Ms Fish added: “He knew she didn’t want him to contact her, so she had no option but to contact the police as she just wants it to stop and for him to leave her alone. She needed the police’s help to achieve this.
“The stalking went on for a three-month period and she’s no longer able to attend church and is anxious about what he’s said to other contacts. She’s had to manage his behaviour by changing her routine.”
The bench were told Zalewsky has a previous conviction for stalking, which he was convicted of in 2024 when he was jailed for 12 weeks and a restraining order was made, but this was in relation to a different victim.
The prosecutor added: “A stalking protection order was put in place and that lasts for five years from 2024 and relates to a third victim.
“His mental health deteriorates periodically due to his failure to take prescribed medication, and this victim also wants a restraining order.”
Richard Graham, defending, said his client had been taking his medication, but that it just didn’t work for him sometimes.
Mr Graham added: ”He was sectioned for treatment and was not a well man at the time. They have not quite got his meds right, but alcohol doesn’t help sometimes.
“He’s not violent. He got drunk in 2021 and assaulted two emergency workers, but he doesn’t attack females, there was no violence [with this latest victim], and he’s on PIP [Personal Independence Payments].”
Magistrates said they’d considered everything that had been said during the hearing, but that this latest stalking offence did pass the custody threshold.
As a result, they jailed Zalewsky for 16 weeks for the offence, but suspended the term for 18 months.
He was also ordered to attend 30 rehabilitation sessions, carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and pay a victim surcharge of £187, as well as £85 court costs.
They also issued a two-year restraining order banning Zalewsky from contacting the woman or going near her home.
However, he was not prosecuted for breaching the Stalking Protection Order.
