Jail for Man who Stalked Jeremy Vine and Others

Broadcaster dubbed Alex Bellfield 'the Jimmy Savile' of trolling


Alex Bellfield. Picture: YouTube

Participate
 

Impartiality Complaint Against Jeremy Vine Upheld

Jeremy Vine Knocked Unconscious in Fall from Penny-farthing

Jeremy Vine Captures 'Porch Pirate' on Video

Anti-vaxx Campaigners Serve 'Writ' on Jeremy Vine

Sign up for our weekly Chiswick newsletter

Comment on this story on the

A former host of a BBC radio show has been jailed for five years and a half years for stalking other broadcasters including Jeremy Vine.

42-year-old Alex Bellfield had been convicted at Nottingham Crown Court of four charges after that it was found that he undertook relentless campaigns of abuse against his victims leading Mr Vine to call him ‘the Jimmy Savile of trolling.’

Bellfield, who had worked as a DJ for BBC Radio Leeds, was found guilty of the more serious charge of causing serious alarm or distress to two of his victims and of a lesser stalking charge in relation to Mr Vine and theatre blogger Philip Dehany.

The stalking campaigns took place over a period of nine years. He made false accusations against people, including the claim that Jeremy Vine had stolen a thousand pounds from the BBC, and then broadcast them on his ‘Voice of Reason’ YouTube channel on which he had 500,000 followers. Some of the people following Bellfield took up the abuse and, in some cases, made death threats.

One of the victims, BBC Radio Northampton presenter, Bernie Keith, said that he was driven to considering suicide by what he described as a ‘tsunami of hate’ from Bellfield.

"It felt like I had a fish hook in my face and my flesh was being torn, and the only way to avoid further pain was to stay completely still," he said.

The judge felt that a custodial sentence was required despite the offences not fitting the ‘traditional’ patterns of stalking.

Bellfield did express some remorse in a report submitted to the court before the sentencing but the judge noted that Bellfield focused on the impact on himself and how he felt he had been unfairly treated.

Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More

This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism.

Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets.

We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more.

However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do.

We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area.

A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site.

One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute.

If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor.

For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site.


 

September 18, 2022

 

Bookmark and Share