A SEX pest who harassed hairdressers across town with a series of threatening and perverted phone calls has been jailed for two years and nine months.

Kardw Rustam, 36, carried out the two-year reign of terror on more than a dozen salon workers before moving on to actually carrying out a sex attack on a woman in a pub.

The offender, who had arrived in the UK from Iraq as an asylum seeker seven years ago, put his hand up the skirt of a woman as she enjoyed a night out in a town centre bar.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Rustam appeared to have picked women’s hair salons at random and made the calls to the receptionists or managers.

The calls followed a similar pattern, he said, where he started by talking about putting on a kettle before moving on to talking about sex.

The calls then became more sinister as he revealed he knew what the women or their colleagues looked like.

He was also persistent, often phoning back seconds after they had hung up on him to continue the perverted calls.

As well as the 25 women who worked at hairdressers he also targeted a woman social worker.

Mr Meeke said Rustam then took his obsession with young women to the next stage, by carrying out a sex attack in a town centre pub last November.

The victim was standing at the top of some stairs in the Sir Daniel Arms, in Fleet Street, when she noticed Rustam, who was a stranger, standing close to her.

He put his hand up her dress and touched her buttocks, causing her to move away, only for him to do it again twice more.

When he was questioned about the phone calls he admitted what he had done, saying he hadn’t realised it could upset the victims, but he initially denied the sex attack.

Rustam, of Reading Street in the Railway Village, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and harassment and asked for 25 similar matters to be taken into consideration.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client had been troubled by the cultural change and how women are treated in this country. He said Rustam, who had a good work record, had initially regarded the phone calls as a bit of fun.

Jailing him, Judge William Hart said “It was an inexcusable and long running campaign conducted entirely for your sexual pleasure.

“Then on the other indictment you sexually assaulted a woman a woman in a public house.

“Seen in isolation it is low on the scale of seriousness as offences of that nature go. But viewed in the context of your other behaviour it is very disturbing.

“I’ve considered the cultural differences in your Iraqi background and what is accepted in that country.

“I consider it would be an insult to the Iraqi people to find that such cultural differences that may exist have any significance at all in these offences.

“You are a man with a distorted view of female autonomy and of appropriate behaviour towards women.”

As well as jailing him he also told Rustam he must register as a sex offender for ten years.