A judge has found former BBC DJ Alex Belfield guilty of four stalking charges against broadcasters including Jeremy Vine. The jury reached a verdict at Nottingham Crown Court today after beginning their deliberations on Tuesday morning, according to The Mirror.
Belfield decided not to give evidence in his defence last week, before delivering a closing speech claiming he was a whistle-blower who had seen two-and-a-half years of his life "torn apart" by police inquiries. Prosecutors alleged Belfield used social media messages, videos and emails to cause serious alarm or distress to broadcasters including Channel 5 and BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine.
Giving evidence last month, Vine described Belfield's campaign of abuse as "the Jimmy Savile of trolling" as he gave evidence in court. Mr Vine recalled reading a blog post that had been written by another of the alleged victims, theatre critic Philip Dehany.
"What I admired about him is instead of running away, Dehany logged everything, and he put it in a blog," Mr Vine told the court. "And as I read this blog I realised for the first time we are dealing with serious criminality. This is not a regular troll here, this is the Jimmy Savile of trolling."
Mr Vine also told the court he feared his family could be targeted by a knife or acid attacker following an alleged trolling campaign by the YouTuber. The BBC Radio 2 presenter broke down in tears as he described the "avalanche of hatred" allegedly unleashed on him by ex-BBC presenter Alex Belfield.
He said he put up a photo of Belfield in his hallway in case he turned up on his doorstep and warned his daughters about the threat. Nottingham crown court heard Belfield falsely accused Mr Vine in 2020 of stealing £1,000 from a memorial fund for radio legend John Myers.
He then repeated the claim in videos on his YouTube channel and asked his viewers to ring the presenter’s phone-in shows, it is claimed. Mr Vine described the alleged stalking as "serious criminality" and said watching the videos was "like swimming in sewage".
He told jurors he had previously been physically stalked by someone else, but said that was “a picnic compared” to Belfield’s alleged harassment.
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