Alex Belfield was convicted of stalking four people, including broadcaster Jeremy Vine.
Image source, PA MediaA former BBC radio presenter found guilty of stalking four people including broadcaster Jeremy Vine has been jailed for five and a half years.
Alex Belfield, who now runs a YouTube channel, stalked his victims by harassing them online.
His trial heard he made YouTube videos about them, posted messages on social media, sent emails, and also encouraged his followers to target them.
The judge said one of his victims was “seconds away” from killing himself.
“You made communications which had serious impacts on the private lives of the complaints and had distressing effects on their physical and mental health,” Mr Justice Saini said.
The judge told Belfield that while he did not engage in “traditional stalking”, his methods were “just as effective a way of intimidating victims, and in many ways much harder to deal with”.
Belfield, who is 42 and from Nottingham, was originally charged with stalking eight different people, who were mostly current or former BBC staff.
The full wording of the charges stated he “pursued a course of conduct that amounted to harassment” of the complainants, which “amounted to stalking” and caused them “serious alarm or distress”.
He was found guilty of this offence in relation to two of the complainants – BBC Radio Northampton presenter Bernie Spedding, who is known as Bernie Keith, and videographer Ben Hewis.
For each of these charges, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, to run consecutively.
The judge said Belfield had caused “very significant distress” to Mr Spedding.
“He was seconds away from taking his own life as a result of your conduct,” the judge told Belfield.
‘Wholly false’ allegations
In relation to Jeremy Vine and theatre blogger Philip Dehany, he was found guilty of two lesser offences of “simple” stalking, which does not require serious alarm or distress to be proved.
For each of these offences, he was sentenced to 13 weeks, also to run consecutively.
The judge said Belfield had made “wholly false” allegations about Mr Vine stealing £1,000, had published his home address, and left Mr Vine so worried he had “asked his family to watch out for you”.
The verdicts in relation to each complainant were:
- Rozina Breen – not guilty
- Liz Green – not guilty
- Helen Thomas – not guilty
- Stephanie Hirst – not guilty
- Bernard Spedding – guilty (majority verdict)
- Ben Hewis – guilty (unanimous verdict)
- Philip Dehany – not guilty to the charge on the indictment but guilty of the alternative charge of “simple” stalking (majority verdict)
- Jeremy Vine – not guilty to the charge on the indictment but guilty of the alternative charge of “simple” stalking (unanimous verdict)
The judge told Belfield he will serve half of his sentence in prison and the remainder on licence.
The judge made restraining orders in relation to all of the complainants, including those he was not convicted of stalking.
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