A woman who stalked a Brighton and Hove Albion football player and two other Premier League players has been given a suspended prison sentence.
Orla Melissa Sloan, 22, who called herself Devil Baby on Instagram, used 21 phone numbers to stalk the Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount for four months last year.
Sloan stalked his team-mate Ben Chilwell last October and, for almost two months from early September, she targeted Billy Gilmour, who came to Brighton from Chelsea on loan.
Scotland midfielder Gilmour, 22, said that her messages had a “huge impact” on his life after he joined Brighton from the London club last September.
The court was told that she first messaged him saying that she thought that they should be in a relationship but he did not want contact to continue and told her so.
The messages became more threatening and in one she said: “I will hunt you down, Orla x.”
She then began messaging his friends and family. One of the messages said: “This is very serious what Billy is doing to me.”
Some messages had religious references and they became more “erratic” over time, the court was told.
She even messaged his aunt to tell her that the footballer “is a bad, bad boy” and that “he slept with me and never, never spoke to me again”.
Gilmour said in a victim impact statement: “I have not been able to sleep and have had to take sleeping tablets.
“It’s had a negative effect on my performance and professional life.
“Being in a new town where I don’t have my friends or family, it’s really upsetting.”
Sloan also claimed to have fallen pregnant in allegations described at an earlier hearing as “completely fictitious”.
He added: “I don’t know who I can trust any more. Some of the information would only have been known by people close to me.”
Sloan, described as a TikTok and Instagram influencer, started to bombard Mason Mount with messages after a one-night stand.
At Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Sloan was described as “addicted to social media”.
