OUR DAILY PUB QUIZ
1 2 Stalker’s chilling threat to presenter
How many of Henry VIII’s wives were called Anne?
What is the hard polymer used in old-fashioned telephones and radios?
In which 1983 miniseries did an alien force called the Visitors arrive on Earth?
Which famous steam train runs from Fort William to Mallaig in Scotland?
how it had suddenly changed. It wasn’t just a threat from nowhere, which would have been bad enough and is still terrible, but it came after a very long campaign of attention and fantasy.” Hawthorn, 69, was jailed for two years and six months at Bristol crown court in January after he admitted stalking Alex by sending 38 cards over two years. The presenter of BBC Points West told ITV’s Lorraine she was relieved that Hawthorn turned out to be an old man. She said: “He said that he’s raped many times before so you’re thinking he’s this big, strong man, he’s probably quite young, mobile. Actually was older, he didn’t drive.
“All those threats just melted away [after his conviction] and I was so happy, I went out on my own at lunchtime just to get a sandwich.” BBC presenter Alex Lovell has said she was afraid to go out alone after being sent a rape threat by a stalker.
The journalist, 46, received a series of “creepy, intense and suggestive” cards from Gordon Hawthorn before he wrote: “My new year’s resolution is to have sex with you, and if you don’t comply, I will rape you.”
Alex said of the fear the letter caused: “You can’t go out on your own because you don’t know what this person is. Friends and colleagues say he’s probably just some sad person who is sitting there fantasising, but the trouble is you don’t know.” JAILED Hawthorn outside court
Alex said she recognised Hawthorn’s anonymous cards when they arrived because they had a “very distinctive cross on the back with little crosses in between”.
She said of the 2016 rape threat: “It was not just the threat of rape, but it was Alex in TV news role