A man who arranged to buy a £600 “murder kit” to kill his ex will only be able to message named family members and friends on social media sites like Facebook.

But Judge Peter Blair QC stopped short of banning Matthias Brandt from using social media apps altogether as he green-lit a request from prosecutors for a serious crime prevention order.

The five year order, which will come into force when the 44-year-old is released from prison, will limit his access to the web and require him to hand over his digital devices to police officers when asked.

Judge Blair said the eight paragraph order was justified, but agreed with Brandt’s barrister Chloe Griggs that the first prohibition – a blanket ban from using social media applications with an “open search” function – was “too wide ranging”.

However, he added: “The paragraphs two to eight, which are conceded, are proportionate and not disputed [but] are not in my view sufficiently wide in order to deal with what is necessary to protect the public.”

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Matthias Brandt Picture: WILTSHIRE POLICE

Brandt, formerly of Horsham Road, Park South, will have to submit a list of friends and family members with whom he wants to communicate on social media. The judge did not limit which social media sites he could use.

“In some parts of the world one suspects there may be less access to one social media site or application than in other parts of the world and I see no reason why Mr Brandt and his family members and listed friends shouldn’t be able to use a site which provides the greatest ease and access,” he said.

Brandt appeared in Bristol Crown Court over the video link from Bristol prison. He had been due before the court in person, but had not been produced. Explanations given to his barrister for the no-show ranged from another prisoner showing covid symptoms and a bungle at the prison to Brandt refusing to leave his cell, Ms Griggs told the judge.

As he left the video link room, Brandt appeared to say “absolute b******s”.

Last year, he was jailed for seven years and eight months and given an extended four year and four month licence period after he pleaded guilty part-way through his trial to encouraging another to commission the supply of a firearm and ammunition.

The Park South man met a plain-clothes policeman he believed to be a hitman called Ryan in a Costa Coffee at Swindon’s McArthurGlen Designer Outlet, paying him a £300 deposit to hire a revolver, stun gun and knife.

Brandt had already hired half a dozen private eyes to track down his Prague-based ex.

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Brandt searched for weapons on the internet Picture: WILTSHIRE POLICE

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One of the knives searched for by Brandt Picture: WILTSHIRE POLICE

The pair met in the Czech Republic at the end of 2018. They enjoyed a whirlwind romance that started in the capital’s Hotel Paris.

After the relationship soured, the woman was said to have returned to Prague with Brandt’s engagement ring.

Her friend was said to have contacted Brandt and told him his fiancée had been arrested in the USA and needed him to pay her $500 bail. When he did, he was told it was not enough and they needed more cash. He grew suspicious and reported the incident to Action Fraud in early February.

Brandt obsessed over tracing his ex, spending thousands of pounds on around half a dozen private investigators.

He bought a £10 burner phone from Asda and, on the afternoon of March 22, 2019, met a man he knew only as Ryan in Costa Coffee.

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Bristol Crown Court

He thought Ryan was a hitman. In fact, he was an undercover policeman who was filming the encounter on a hidden camera.

Brandt told Ryan he planned to ambush his ex, who he said worked an escort, kill her and then dismember her body. He agreed to pay as down payment £300 – half of the amount it would cost to hire the weapons.

When he was arrested, detectives told Brandt that the arms dealer he met was in fact an undercover police officer. He claimed he was training to become a private investigator himself and the meeting was part of a plan to catch the dangerous gangster.

During the trial it emerged he had previous convictions for possession of a stun gun and harassing ex partners.