My nightmare is f inally over
Relief of BBC newsreader as stalker in rape threat is jailed
A STALKER was jailed yesterday for bombarding a BBC newsreader with dozens of ‘grossly violent and offensive’ greeting cards while ‘venting his frustrations’ after 34 years in a sexless relationship.
Gordon Hawthorn, 69, admitted stalking Alex Lovell by sending 38 cards to her over a two-year period and was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
The presenter, who was threatened with rape by Hawthorn, said her nightmare was ‘finally over’.
She had told the court in a victim impact statement that he had ‘stolen two years of my freedom’ with his persistent threats.
Miss Lovell, 45, contacted Avon and Somerset Police after receiv- ing a card in which Hawthorn stated his New Year’s resolution was to have sex with her, with or without her consent.
He was identified after a police appeal led to another woman, who had received a Valentine’s Day card at her workplace, recognising his handwriting.
At Bristol Crown Court yesterday, Judge Martin Picton described Hawthorn’s cards as ‘disgusting and frightening’ and said that for two years Miss Lovell ‘could never be sure she was safe’.
‘Miss Lovell would have an awareness, whenever she was on screen, that the author of those letters was watching and thinking the kind of thoughts you expressed in your messages to her,’ he said.
‘When out and about she could never be sure that the author of the cards was not spying on her or posing a threat to her safety.’
The judge also placed Hawthorn under an indefinite restraining order that prevents him from contacting Miss Lovell or visiting the BBC in Bristol.
The court heard that when Hawthorn began sending cards to Miss Lovell at the BBC in November 2012 they were harmless but Nikki Coombe, prosecuting, said they became ‘graphic and distressing’.
The cards went on to describe how he was following her in the street, had been close enough to smell her hair, knew what she was wearing and threatened to come to her home.
The BBC presenter reported the correspondence to bosses following a card on January 12, 2016 that read: ‘Make no mistake Alex that I am going to have sex with you this year, even if it means I have to rape you.’
The police became involved and Miss Lovell told officers that reading his explicit threat ‘caused her blood to run cold’.
Catherine Spedding, defending, told the court Miss Lovell ‘took the brunt’ of Hawthorn’s frustration over his own 34-year relationship, which had never been sexual, and claimed it was ‘clearly a fantasy for him, rather than reality’.
He has since sent her an apology describing himself as a ‘silly old fool’ and not a threat.
Miss Lovell has been a presenter on BBC Points West in Bristol since 2005. Speaking after the case, she said: ‘The nightmare is finally over and I’d like to thank my friends and family, colleagues and police for their support.’
‘Never sure she was safe’