When Alex Belfield was sent to prison for five and a half years last month for online stalking, his accusers cried with relief. Finally, respite from what for some had been a decade of near-constant abuse. No more waking up in the middle of the night filled with dread about what he might have said about them to his then 373,000 YouTube subscribers or in bitter emails to their bosses or clients.
For the TV presenter Jeremy Vine, the most high-profile target of arguably Britain’s most prolific troll, it would be the first time in several years that he could host a live phone-in without worrying that one of Belfield’s acolytes would hijack the programme to confront him with Belfield’s lies.
