Alex Belfield

Former BBC presenter and Youtuber Alex Belfield has been found guilty of stalking and harassing eight victims through his online presence.

The charges state that Alex Belfield pursued a course of conduct that amounted to harassment. The Judge said how Alex Belfield stalked one of his previous friends Mr. In one of Alex Belfield's YouTube videos, he accused Jeremy Vine of stealing £1,000 from the BBC. Alex Belfield was guilty concerning two other complainants. The Judge mentioned how Belfield's chosen method of stalking was a very unconventional type. Alex Belfield's trials showed him making videos of the victim.

Alex Belfield has received a five-year jailed sentence after being found guilty for stalking four people, including a fellow broadcaster.

“You were not a whistleblower in any sense but developed a fixation with pursuing Mr Vine with a campaign of abuse,” the judge commented. Your methods were, however, just as effective as a way of intimidating your victims, and were in many ways much harder to deal with.” The judge said Belfield had made “wholly false” allegations about Mr Vine stealing £1,000 of BBC licence payers’ money.

The charges he was found guilty on included stalking Bernard Spedding - known professionally as Bernie Keith - of BBC Radio Northampton, and the stalking had ...

"Applying the civil standard, I find that Mr Belfield carried out a historic course of conduct against each complainant which amounted to statutory harassment causing distress and alarm and that he ought to have known his actions amounted to harassment. There were many common features of Mr Belfield’s conduct in relation to these complainants and I will, in the interests of brevity, summarise my findings by reference to the common facts which emerged from the evidence. "As to downward adjustment, the mitigation is lack of previous convictions, good character and some remorse in the form I have stated. "As to downward adjustment, the mitigation is lack of previous convictions, good character and remorse in the form I have stated. As to culpability, I find your actions were intended to maximise distress to Mr Hewis and took place over a sustained period albeit a period shorter than in the case of Mr Keith. Thirdly, you encouraged your followers to contact him and your posting publicly about Mr Hewis resulted in followers of your social media profiles abusing Mr Hewis. "I find you had no intention of taking legal action but decided to use online threats as a way to obtain details of who had supplied Mr Hewis with the information about you which he published in his tweet. "You felt that Mr Hewis had libelled you by a post on Twitter which included part of the private email Mr Keith had sent Mr Hewis on 1 October 2019. That is the principle of totality to which I will make reference in my remarks and which you have heard Counsel discussing with me. "I have had regard to the moving victim personal statements, which have been submitted to the court. I am grateful to him and to Mr McGuinness KC and Mr Rowcliffe for the substantial assistance they provided to me throughout the trial. "At the end of my sentencing, I will also need to deal with a separate matter which is the Crown’s application for restraining orders against you in relation to the 4 complainants where the jury acquitted you.

Alex Belfield was found guilty last month after subjecting victims to 'avalanche of hatred'

Giving evidence in court, Vine said watching Belfield’s videos was “like swimming in sewage” and said: “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. Saini said a pre-sentence report showed that, while Belfield “fully acknowledges the distress to victims”, it also “highlights you still appear to focus on the impact on you and feel in certain respects you’ve been unfairly treated”. your methods were just as effective a way of intimidating victims and in many ways much harder to deal with”.