A CHEF has been ordered to complete unpaid work following his ‘obsessive’ behaviour towards his ex-girlfriend.

Ferenc Zelenak was also said to have cut his own neck when police arrested him, although his barrister said this was not a ‘serious and genuine’ attempt on his own life.

The 31-year-old admitted a charge of stalking involving serious alarm and distress at an earlier hearing, and he appeared back before Warrington Magistrates’ Court to learn his fate.

Prosecuting at the sentencing hearing, Matthew Dixon explained how the stalking behaviour spanned a number of months between the end of November last year and start of March this year.

Zelenak, described in court as a previous hearing as a ‘chef at one of Warrington’s most popular restaurants’, admitted stalking his former partner following their break-up.

His offending came to a head on March 4, when he was caught on CCTV following her and her friend through Warrington.

He was seen ‘creeping around’, hiding behind street furniture and walls and looking into buildings the victim had gone into.

Police were called, and while being arrested the defendant ‘attempted to take his own life’ by cutting his neck with keys, causing only a minor injury.

The court previously heard that the victim felt the relationship had turned ‘toxic’, with Zelenak ‘trying to control her’ and following her.

This impacted her mental health, the court was told, and also resulted in her quitting her job as she ‘doesn’t feel comfortable working late nights’.

“The defendant is obsessed with the victim and won’t leave her alone,” the court heard.

His defence brief previously said that Ferenc works as a chef at ‘one of the most popular restaurants in Warrington’.

He also remarked that the neck cutting was not a ‘serious and genuine’ attempt on his own life, ‘evident by the fact he used something as blunt as a house key’.

Magistrates felt that the offence was serious enough o merit a community penalty and subsequently sentenced Ferenc, of Chester Road in Lower Walton, to an 18-month community order.

This includes 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 120 hours of unpaid work.

He must also pay costs to the Crown Prosecution Service of £120 and a statutory victim surcharge of £114, and abide by a two-year restraining order prohibiting him from contacting the victim or entering a named Warrington street.