Tourist snuck into Stirling student flat and told teen he was 'looking for girl to have sex with'

A man who sneaked into a student flat at 3am and told a young woman he was looking for “a girl” to have sex with has been jailed for a year.

Attilio Pandolfo, 55, gained access to the privately rented flat on King Street, Stirling, after the door from the close had been left unlocked for others arriving late.

An 18-year-old student, who was visiting, was in the living room when Pandolfo appeared in the doorway.

The teenager told the court she asked the stranger what he was doing, to which he replied he was “looking for a girl”.

As the student – described as “very distressed” – shouted for the other flat occupants, Pandolfo blocked the door, saying, “You’re not going anywhere”.

The witness told Stirling Sheriff Court: “I was really scared at this point.

“There was a silence, and after the silence, he said he was looking for a girl to f***.”

Other students woke up, and Pandolfo left – pursued by a Stirling University law student who ran down the common stair and caught up with him near the bottom of nearby Friar Street.

The teenager said: “I confronted him and asked him why he’d been in the flat and called him a creep.

“He replied, ‘I didn’t rape anybody’.”

The student said he kept asking Pandolfo what he had been doing, then he called the police.

The exchange was overheard by another student who, two nights earlier, had helped another girl barricade the door to her flat, also in Stirling city centre, after Pandolfo had followed her home, telling her, “I’m staying at yours”.

Pandolfo, described as an Italian tourist and said to have no permanent address, was found guilty of directing a sexual verbal comment to the 18-year-old without her consent and two charges of statutory breach of the peace.

He had pleaded not guilty and claimed that the incidents on September 16 and 18 were simply a misunderstanding, and he was only looking for a place to stay.

Sheriff Keith O’Mahony rejected this explanation as “ludicrous”.

He said: “These were two separate incidents separated by two days.

“That’s not suggestive of a misunderstanding; it’s suggestive of something predatory.”

When he appeared for sentence on Wednesday, the court was told Pandolfo had been “opaque” with a social worker trying to prepare a background report on him, but his intention was to return to Italy.

Sheriff O’Mahony jailed Pandolfo for 12 months, adding: “These events must have been very frightening for the women involved. I am absolutely satisfied the custody threshold has been passed.”