The founder of a popular Manchester City fan website has been jailed after waging "chilling" campaigns of stalking against two contributors.

Stuart Marshall, 36, who the court was told had set up the City Watch site from scratch, began flooding the men with messages which became more and more threatening and sinister.

Mocked-up porn images involving the men's girlfriends were sent to them and they had their social media accounts hacked as part of the campaigns of stalking.

Then when police officers raided his home in Bury, several dozen indecent images and videos of young boys, aged between 11 and 16, were found on a pen drive.

"This defendant was the instigator of a website called City Watch. It was a website where he had a number of people working for him as volunteers," Nicholas Flanagan, prosecuting, told Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court.

(Image: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

One of the victims was a 23-year-old contributor who wanted to work with computer whizz Marshall to gain some experience, the court was told, whilst the second was an employee of what became an increasingly successful business.

Both men said after a while Marshall became more and more "intense" and began contacting them several hundreds times a day at one point.

The messages included him at one point telling the men he would kill himself and that the victim 'would have to stop him'.

Eventually both men decided to cut off contact as they felt their relationship with him was becoming "inappropriate" and "toxic."

However after telling him they were leaving the business, Marshall's behaviour began to quickly "escalate" and followed a "chilling pattern" towards both.

Marshall continued to send Whatsapp and email messages - many of which contained threats to the men's families and their girlfriends, the court was told.

One message to one victim "threatened to out him as a homophobe" Mr Flanagan said.

During the course of the stalking, which lasted around four months for one victim and around a year for the second, their social media accounts such as Facebook and LinkedIn were hacked and in one case, their bank details obtained.

Both victims were also sent links to porn sites with mocked up pictures including their girlfriend's face and name.

An advert was also placed on a swinger's website containing the address and phone numbers of one victim and his girlfriend, and unpaid pizzas arrived at their home.

On one occasion a fake Twitter profile was set up in the name of the second victim and a post was sent which called for the stabbing of Liverpool fans and also included a sick reference to the Hillsborough disaster.

(Image: MEN)

He was then "inundated" with messages from furious Liverpool fans in response, the court was told.

Marshall wasn't directly responsible for each and every act described but had enlisted the help of others to aid him in the task of targeting the pair, the prosecution said. Both men called in police in Spring last year.

It was during this search of his home that the pen drive containing the 40 indecent images and videos, 13 being of the most serious nature, were discovered.

Marshall, of Leslie Avenue, Bury, pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to two counts of stalking, one charge of using unauthorised access to computer material to facilitate the commission of an offence, relating to the hacking and three charges of possessing indecent images of children.

Dan Gaskell, defending, said Mr Marshall's "mental state" including an unnamed psychological disorder "played a significant part in the commission of these offences."

He said: "The defendant has accepted through his guilty plea responsibility and through co-operation with medical professionals a level of remorse.

(Image: MEN)

"His reaction to being left on his own by the two complainants with his business,which although established, was still very much in its infancy, which he had started from scratch much to his credit, has become so concerning they have sought the assistance of the police. It was an overreaction.

"He set up this business using his skills with social media and was able to move from what was essentially a hobby into a business which could be monetised."

However he said after setting up a podcast arm of the business, being told people were going to pursue their own interests left him a feeling of "hopelessness" and that the stalking had eventually "gone beyond his control."

Mr Gaskell said his offending was bound to have a "disastrous" effect on his ability to run City Watch business, which has more than 150,000 followers on Twitter, but that he had employed others to keep it running due to restrictions on his use of computers and the internet.

However the judge rejected pleas to suspend his sentence and Marshall put his his head in his hands in the dock as he was told he would be sent straight to prison and would serve two years and four months.

Judge Angela Nield described the "deliberate and targeted" campaign as "appalling" and said it was a "sad" that a man of Marshall's "obvious intelligence and skill" had ended up before the courts.

(Image: MEN)

She said: "This was deliberate and intended to cause maximum distress to the victims. There was a high degree of planning and they were sophisticated.

"The hacking of computers was a skilled process, the creation of false accounts, the manipulation of photos can only be achieved by someone with your professional knowledge.

"Whilst I accept that the prosecution cannot show that each and every action was taken directly by you.

"But I am sufficiently satisfied that the actions which were undertaken were undertaken at your instigation and you made it clear in intervening communications with the victims that you could stop this at any time, suggesting a measure of control."

He could be heard shouting "what are you laughing at" at one of his victims in the public gallery as he was led away.