Broadcaster Iain Lee has sent a powerful message to the supporters of convicted stalker Alex Belfield after he was jailed for more than five years. The disgraced BBC Radio Leeds presenter was jailed after a five-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court.
In August Belfield, of Mapperley, was convicted of stalking to cause alarm and distress to BBC Radio Northampton's Bernie Keith, and guilty of the same charge concerning videographer Ben Hewis. He was further found guilty of "simple stalking" regarding theatre blogger Philip Dehany and to the "simple stalking" of Jeremy Vine, the presenter, broadcaster and journalist who is best known for hosting a show on BBC Radio 2.
Iain Lee, a Jack FM host who also appeared on I'm A Celebrity: Get Me Out Of Here', had said he was not proud to admit he was "too scared" to take Belfield to court, but thanked those who did. He broke down in tears as he followed Belfield's sentencing on Friday, September 16.
READ MORE: Recap after Alex Belfield sentenced for stalking victims including Jeremy Vine
And he has now issued a message to Belfield's followers. He said: "I've heard lots of people on Twitter saying you should get over it, you should let this go, are you obsessed? And telling me how to behave. As a victim, don't tell us how to behave. Whatever you're going through as a victim, however you're behaving, is absolutely right.
"I'm also really surprised at how many of Alex Belfield's fans seem to be obsessed with sex offence laws and paedophiles. Obsessed with them, constantly saying 'well a paedophile only gets this', well okay let's raise the sentencing terms for sex offenders shall we? It doesn't mean we have to lower the sentencing terms for convicted, obnoxious, awful stalkers.
"Thank you everyone for all your support. And to the Belfield supporters, you don't have any impact on me, I'm just blocking, blocking, blocking, leave your comments, they will get deleted. This isn't about free speech, I don't claim to be an advocate of free speech, Alex Belfield's YouTube channel for the last two months had comments turned off, and yet you are having a go at me about free speech?
"I should feel this, I should let it go, I should 'man up'. No."
Belfield's 'The Voice of Reason' YouTube channel has more than 360,000 subscribers and the video platform has refused to ban the channel despite repeated calls to do so. "If you ever feel like going public I would happily hold your hand," Mr Lee said in a message to other victims, as a call to those who may not have spoken about what they have been through.
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