A serial stalker who demanded topless pictures of women after finding their contact details on missing pet appeals has been jailed.
Steven Bowkett, 33, trawled missing pet websites looking for women’s phone numbers and then messaged them pretending he had found their dogs.
But after getting owners’ hopes up, he bombarded them with indecent images and videos of himself, demanding they do the same.
Birmingham Crown Court heard Bowkett tormented at least 30 strangers across the UK and even told one victim: "This only ends when I see you topless".
The women blocked Bowkett’s number but continued to receive messages and video calls as he switched to one of many pay-as-you-go SIMs he had bought in bulk.
He also boasted “police can’t do anything” before officers tracked his phone to an address in the Sheldon area of Birmingham and arrested him.
Detectives found he had bought 28 SIM cards to contact multiple women from the West Midlands and other parts of the country.
Bowkett went on to plead guilty to multiple stalking, attempted stalking and indecent exposure offences.
On Monday he was jailed for four years and eight months.
Detective Sergeant Becky Leyland, from West Midlands Police's Adult Abuse Team said: "Bowkett tormented his victims.
"They felt there was no escape from him as he seemed to have no end of different phone numbers to contact them on.
“It must have been very frightening and caused these women serious distress.
“In interview, Bowkett claimed he was drunk when sending the images and videos and couldn’t recall how many people he’d contacted.
“But these weren’t drunken mistakes. This was systematic and calculated harassment of strangers for his own gratification.
“He’s rightly been handed a long jail term and this case should serve as an example of how seriously we take offences like this and that offenders are risking a prison sentence.”
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