A prostitute was moved to a safe house when a client she started dating bombarded her with abusive phone calls and text messages.

David Peapell started seeing Brighton call girl Sarah Gant but when she ended the relationship Peapell, 36, began a campaign of harassment which only ended when the police moved her to a secret location.

Louisa Marshall, prosecuting, told Hove Crown Court Peapell accused Miss Gant of infecting him with a sexually transmitted disease, although there was no evidence to support this.

Peapell, of Swanborough Place, Brighton, sent her dozens of messages calling her a "dirty bitch" and other insults.

He also followed her and phoned her ten minutes after she had returned home from a holiday.

Miss Marshall said Peapell had started visiting Miss Gant after answering her advert for escort services.

She said: "They developed a relationship which went beyond her professional work. He was one of her first clients but he ceased to be a client and became her boyfriend."

Miss Marshall said that in March he began talking to her about hooliganism at football matches and how he did not go to enjoy the game.

She said Miss Gant decided to end the relationship when he started making comments about women.

The calls and text messages began after she refused to see him and he continued to go to her home.

He turned up at the door of a friend's house while she was visiting and demanded to see her.

Peapell pleaded guilty to harassing Miss Gent between April 7 and June 20.

The court heard he had previous convictions for assault and carrying an offensive weapon.

David Lyons, defending, said: "He first went to see her before Christmas and she told him that she had been a prostitute since she was 15.

"There is no question of him being her first customer and she has wide experience of the seedier side of life.

"She invited him not to use protection because it would have been like her working relationship with clients.

"She told him that she had contracted herpes which is incurable.

"He said he made a number of calls to her because she was working as a prostitute and he wanted to check she was safe."

Mr Lyons said all contact between Peapell and Miss Gent had now ended.

Judge Anthony Niblett sentenced Peapell to four months' jail but he was released immediately because he had already spent three months in custody awaiting trial.

He was also made the subject of a restraining order preventing him from contacting Miss Gent indefinitely.