Stalker jailed for 'cruel' hounding of women

Piersaverio Finizio approached the women when they were on their own and asked for their phone numbers

A "cruel" man who traumatised four women resulting in them being too afraid to leave their homes has been jailed for a year for stalking.

Piersaverio Finizio, 30, was sentenced to four counts of stalking causing serious distress at Bristol Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

He was convicted by magistrates on 7 October after denying the charges, and on sentencing was also given a stalking prevention order and a restraining order preventing him from contacting his victims for five years.

One of his victims said Finizio's actions had left her with "overwhelming" fear and anxiety.

She added that she "no longer feel(s) comfortable or at ease when leaving my home" and is "constantly on edge about being followed or approached".

Another victim said that she had not "known peace" since encountering Finizio, of St Nicholas Road in St Pauls, and was "anxious all the time".

"That first time, he said, 'it must be scary being a girl at night'. That sentence broke something in me. It wasn't just cruel, it was deliberate. He knew what he was doing, as if he liked that I was afraid," she added.

All four women said they were alone when they were approached by Finizio on the streets of Bristol city centre earlier this year, and he persistently asked for their phone numbers.

He told one woman on Bond Street that he would accompany her to where she was going, before telling her that she would be "an angel soon".

One woman was approached by him twice in incidents a month apart on Newfoundland Way.

PC Toby Downes from Avon and Somerset Police said: "It was a deeply disturbing case in which several women were targeted and made to feel unsafe in their own communities, and nobody should be made to feel like that."

He commended the women for their bravery in coming forward and said their courage had been "instrumental" in securing a conviction.