Jeremy Vine tells jury of ‘Olympic-level stalking’ by EX-BBC DJ
BROADCASTER SUFFERED ‘AVALANCHE OF HATRED’ – CLAIM
JOURNALIST Jeremy Vine has told a court how he was allegedly stalked by a former colleague he had never met.
Mr Vine was giving evidence at the trial of Alex Belfield, a former BBC radio presenter, who denies a catalogue of stalking allegations involving former colleagues.
Mr Vine had tears in his eyes at one point as he spoke of what had allegedly happened to him, and even described it as “the Jimmy Savile of trolling”.
“It felt like I had a fish hook placed in my face and my flesh was being torn,” he said.
The accomplished broadcaster, who has two daughters and lives in London, told the Nottingham Crown Court jury yesterday: “This is absolutely Olympic-level stalking.”
He told the court how he had upgraded security at his home and how he sat his two daughters down and told them about the situation: “That he hates me. He has accused me of stealing. He has driven so much hatred towards me, girls. We are going to have to be careful.”
Mr Vine, who hosts a daily radio show on Radio 2 and a morning magazine show on Channel 5, said they had a picture of Belfield in their hallway for a while so they knew who he was. He believed Belfield had 500,000 followers.
Speaking more about how the claims about him by Belfield have affected him, Mr Vine said: “It is like an avalanche of hatred that you get hit by.”
Belfield cannot post anything about Mr Vine online as that would be breaching his bail.
Mr Vine added: “It is crazy and it is wicked, and we had a break from it.”
Belfield was allegedly offering
people money to go on air and accuse him (Mr Vine) of theft. Mr Vine said: “We are lucky it didn’t happen. I thought it would.”
Mr Vine said the story was completely and utterly false and every reference to him “makes my flesh creep ... that stress reaction”.
Mr Vine claimed: “This is not a one-off. He (Belfield) operates through persistence and repetition.”
Belfield is accused of leading a “campaign of harassment” against former colleagues, as well as Jeremy Vine, after being let go by the BBC.
Belfield, 42, of Shaldon Close in Mapperley, denies eight counts of stalking on eight different people from 2012 to 2021.
The prosecution says his stalking was more akin to “internet trolling” than physical stalking – sending emails, tweets or making videos and subjecting them to harassment and abuse, some over the course of many years.
Belfield started out as a broadcast assistant on local radio and then became a radio presenter himself. In more recent years, he has set up his own channel on Youtube.
The court heard that Belfield had accused Mr Vine of stealing £1,000 of taxpayers’ money donated to the Myers memorial fund by the BBC – set up in memory of former radio executive John Myers who died suddenly in 2019.
Mr Vine, who denies all of Belfield’s claims and is submitting a libel action against him, was said to have no knowledge or awareness of Belfield until April 2020, when he was subjected to what the prosecution calls “a constant bombardment of harassing tweets and Youtube videos”.
John Mcguinness QC, prosecuting, told the court that Belfield had encouraged his viewers to call in to Mr Vine’s show and ask where the money had gone, offering to pay viewers £10 – or 1,000p as he referred to it – to anyone who was successful.
On another occasion, Belfield claimed Mr Vine had made his daughter a director of his company to avoid paying more tax, an allegation which was “completely untrue”, the prosecutor told the court.
Mr Vine is said to have struggled to sleep, lost his appetite and was worried someone might come to his home, the court was told.
Mr Vine said the saddest thing that happened during all of this was that he had posted a tribute to his father who died of Parkinson’s in 2018. The first message Mr Vine received read: “What would your father have said if he knew his son was a thieving toerag?”
Mr Vine sobbed as he told the jury: “I couldn’t handle it. I got in touch with the person to say ‘how can you put this on my Facebook page’ and he said he watched Belfield’s channel and, ‘I thought it was true.’”
The post was taken down.
Mr Vine said: “I had to tell my mother to watch out for this guy. She is on her own.”
He later added: “He (Belfield) didn’t think about harm, and the fact the harm and the damage stain.”
The trial continues