A Montgomery County man was sentenced today for a relentless campaign of stalking that forced a Bensalem Township woman to move from her own home.

Common Pleas Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. sentenced Matthew John Bustin, 34, of King of Prussia, to nine to 23 months in county jail, and seven years of probation.

During the sentencing hearing on Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Brittney Kern presented a detailed timeline of Bustin's actions, which included online searches of the victim before he ever contacted her on a dating site.

The timeline showed that in the weeks after the victim began communicating with Bustin, he was charged in a similar stalking case in Lehigh County. The victim had only talked to Bustin for six weeks before his disturbing behavior led to her filing a police report.

The victim read an impact statement, which painted a terrifying picture of her ordeal. She said she returned home from vacation on April 16, 2024, to a dark apartment with the electricity cut, internet disconnected, and her security camera turned to the wall. “I truly believed there was someone in my apartment with me,” she stated. She said she waited in her kitchen with a knife and called a friend for help. She described the “scariest part” as “knowing someone had been in my apartment... yet still not knowing who would do this.”

She filed a police report the next day and within two days of filing the police report, she was in so much fear that she moved out. The victim continued to sleep with a knife next to her bed.

In what she described as “a heart-stopping moment,” she found a note tucked among the pillows. The discovery, which she described as a "sick psychological game," confirmed her fears that Bustin was her stalker.

The investigation, by the Bensalem Township Police Department, uncovered that Bustin had placed a magnetized GPS tracking device on the underside of her car. Surveillance video captured him lying on the ground to plant the device while her car was parked at her workplace. Bustin's phone data placed him at her home and workplace on at least nine separate occasions after the relationship ended, and at her home at the exact moment her power was cut.

The psychological effects were not limited to the victim, she said. Her parents, at whose home she stayed for a few days, also faced uncertainty and fear. Her mother took time off work to help her find a new place to live and to accompany her to court. The family brought her car to a garage to search for a tracking device. Financially, the victim incurred the cost of moving and taking days off to move.

In her statement, the victim reflected on Bustin’s history, noting that he was charged in the Lehigh County stalking case around the time he called her for the first time. “The immediacy of recurrence is scary,” she said. “This is not the behavior of someone who has learned from past repercussions, and it isn’t the behavior of someone who feels remorseful.”

As a condition of his sentence, Bustin will not be eligible for parole until he completes the H.O.P.E. substance abuse recovery program. He has also been ordered to have no contact with the victim or any social media sites, pay $1,334.60 in restitution, and comply with all mental health and drug and alcohol requirements.

This case was investigated by Bensalem Police Detective Connor Farnan and Bensalem Police Officer Daniel Meade and was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Brittney Kern.

Media Contact: Manuel Gamiz Jr., 215.348.6298, mgamiz@buckscounty.org.