FOLLOWERS JOINED IN WITH DEATH THREATS

Former BBC presenter Alex Belfield, who ran a Youtube channel, harassed victims online with abusive emails, social media posts and Youtube videos. He encouraged his social media followers to join in, with some even sending death threats to devastating effect; one victim – radio presenter Bernard Spedding – considered suicide. In the case of BBC broadcaster Jeremy Vine, Belfield made ‘wholly false’ allegations about him stealing £1,000 of BBC licence payers’ money, in a video that was viewed by more than 400,000 people, and also published his address to a mass audience.

Giving evidence, Jeremy described it as ‘like an avalanche of hatred you get hit by’, and ‘absolutely Olympic-level stalking, even for broadcasting’. Describing his reaction to an email Belfield sent to him and his Radio 2 programme team, he said, ‘I thought this guy is dangerous. I have in the past had a physical stalker who followed me. That’s a picnic compared to this guy.’

‘LIKE AN AVALANCHE OF HATRED’