Chatshow Alex ‘hounded by stalker at BBC and on Twitter’
BBC presenter Alex Jones is at the centre of a harassment case against a Twitter user accused of bombarding her with declarations of love.
Shane Goldsmith, 44, apparently sent the 38-year-old host of The One Show a series of messages and is also said to have turned up at recording sessions at the BBC where he verbally abused her colleagues.
He has been charged with harassment and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Mr Goldsmith has allegedly sent the Welsh TV host dozens of messages,
‘Accused of harassment’
including declarations of love and invitations to breakfast.
His tweets are said to date as far back as last year and include a particularly lewd post.
Mr Goldsmith is also accused of harassing Miss Jones at BBC Broadcasting House in London.
Miss Jones has co-presented The One Show since August 2010. She also presented the BBC’s gymnastics competition series Tumble last year.
She announced her engagement to Charlie Thomson, a New Zealand-born insurance broker, on The One Show in February.
Her co-host Chris Evans said: ‘Here is the as- of-now freshlyengaged Welsh Wonderwoman. Engaged! Woohoo! Officially now off the market, sorry gentlemen you had your chance, you’ve failed. Apart from one guy.’
He added: ‘Miss Alex Jones, soon to be Mrs Alex Thomson,’ to which Miss Jones responded: ‘Well that part is still up for discussion.’
In an interview with Fit and Well magazine, Miss Jones said the couple had set a date for the wedding but did not divulge further details of her plans.
She admitted she was leaving a lot of the organisational tasks to her mother and said the wedding would be i n her native Wales. She told the September issue: ‘Charlie and I aren’t that organised, so my mum’s doing a lot of the planning.’
Before being chosen as successor to Christine Bleakley on The One Show, Miss Jones had stints presenting on a number of Welshlanguage shows.
She was also part of the BBC
‘Declarations
of love’
team covering Kate Middleton’s wedding to Prince William in 2011, reporting from the Duchess of Cambridge’s home town of Bucklebury in Berkshire. She presented the United Kingdom’s points in the Eurovision Song Contest in the same year. Miss Jones’ publi- cist said she had no comment on the upcoming case. Mr Goldsmith, of no fixed abode, is accused under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
Female BBC stars have suffered from the unwelcome advances of stalkers for many years.
In 2005, a jobless insulation contractor who sent a threatening letter to BBC sports presenter Sue Barker was jailed for six months.
Newsnight host Emily Maitlis was plagued by a former student colleague for 20 years.
In 2008, Edward Vines was locked up indefinitely in a secure hospital after she reported him to police.
BBC newsreader Jill Dando was shot dead on her doorstep in Fulham, west London, in April 1999. Self- confessed stalker Barry George was convicted of her murder but later acquitted following an appeal.