Alex Belfield, a former BBC local radio DJ who was dubbed the “Jimmy Savile of trolling,” was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of four stalking crimes against broadcasters, including Jeremy Vine.
After a month-long trial, 42-year-old Belfield was found guilty of conducting a persistent surveillance campaign against broadcasters, with Jeremy Vine receiving a “avalanche of hatred.”
During a trial, Mr. Vine referred to him as “the Jimmy Savile of trolling” because he routinely posted or sent nasty comments, videos, and emails.
In August, Belfield, of Mapperley, was found guilty of stalking in order to cause fear and distress to BBC Radio Northampton’s Bernie Keith, as well as the same offence in relation to cameraman Ben Hewis.
In addition, he was found guilty of “simple stalking” of theatrical blogger Philip Dehany and of Jeremy Vine, the presenter, broadcaster, and journalist best known for anchoring a BBC Radio 2 programme.
The trial heard how a “tsunami of hate” left Mr. Keith feeling suicidal.
Mr. Vine also testified against Belfield, telling the jurors, “This is not a regular troll here. This is the Jimmy Savile of trolling.”
Mr. Vine compared viewing Belfield’s video output to swimming in filth and said of the defendant’s behaviour, ‘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.’
In dramatic witness testimony, Mr. Vine sobbed as he told jurors that Belfield’s videos and tweets about him sparked a “avalanche of hatred” from other internet users, and that he was forced to install security cameras at his home out of fear that one of the 42-year-old’s “disciples” would launch a knife or acid attack against him or his family.
The Nottingham Crown Court heard that Mr. Vine, who claimed that Mr. Belfield made 124 allusions to him in his online material over a 14-day period, was obliged to hang a photo of Mr. Belfield in the hallway and tell his teenage daughter to be vigilant on the street, leading her to cry.
The jury found Belfield guilty of four crimes committed between 2012 and 2021.
Belfield was sentenced to a total of five years and 26 weeks in jail, of which he will spend one-half, for each of the four convictions he received.
Mr. Justice Saini, while passing sentence, informed Belfield, who was sitting in the court dock taking notes, “Your offences are so serious, only a custodial sentence can be justified.”
John McGuinness QC, the prosecutor, told the jury that Belfield’s behaviour was “more akin to internet trolling” than the “‘more recognisable form of stalking – following the victim when they are moving around in the street, or turning up at their house or place of work to confront them.”
According to him, Belfield constantly contacted his victims through email, Twitter, and Facebook, or he made accusations about them via email, Twitter, and online videos.
During his testimony, however, Mr. Vine stated that he had previously dealt with a “physical” stalker, claiming that this was a “picnic” compared to Belfield’s 11-month internet abuse between 2020 and last year.
He explained how Belfield urged his fans to make phoney calls to his Channel 5 television and BBC Radio 2 programmes.
Mr. Vine said that he was unaware of Belfield’s existence until April 2020, when a friend emailed him a link to a YouTube video containing a “rant” against him, with Belfield concluding: “This guy really p***** me off.”
Mr. Vine said that he “wished he hadn’t’ viewed it, adding: ‘Watching this man is like swimming in sewage.”
Then, a “constant bombardment” of videos, tweets, and messages ensued.
Mr. Vine said during the hearing, “I can see he is really starting to personally dislike me, and I do not know why because I have never had anything to do with this man.”
‘This starts to get more worrying for me because clearly it is Alex versus Jeremy and he has an agenda, and I am wondering if I am starting to have a problem here.’
He added that Belfield started falsely claiming that Mr Vine had ‘stolen’ £1,000 of licence fee payers’ money to put towards a memorial service for radio executive John Myers, who died at the age of 60.
Mr Vine broke down as he told jurors how that accusation, which he described as a ‘complete lie’, had led to one troll targeting an online tribute he posted to his father, who died of Parkinson’s disease.
He said: ‘His comment was, ‘what would your father have said if he knew his son was a thieving toe rag? I couldn’t handle it. I went to the police and said I couldn’t handle it any more.’
Mr Vine added that Belfield, of Mapperley, Nottingham, escalated the harassment from ‘week to week’ to ‘day to day’, claiming: ‘He operates through persistence and repetition.
‘I couldn’t sleep. You are thinking about this 24/7.’
Mr Vine said it left him ‘shredded’.
He added: ‘It launched incredible hate against me. I had 5,000 to 10,000 hateful personal tweets as a direct result of Belfield.
‘He kept on and on. I was anxious. I couldn’t eat or sleep for a time.
‘I felt wounded, and felt there was absolutely no escape.
‘We are dealing with serious criminality here. This is not a regular troll. This is the Jimmy Savile of trolling. Every reference to him makes my flesh creep. All he does is lie.
‘I had a physical stalker who followed me. That was a picnic compared to this guy. His videos are still online. In 1,000 years my great, great grandchildren will see stories about how I stole £1,000, and there is nothing I can do about it.’
Mr Justice Saini said a pre-sentence report showed 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’.
The judge told Belfield that while not ‘traditional stalking’, ‘your methods were just as effective a way of intimidating victims and in many ways much harder to deal with.’
He added there was ‘no escape’ for Belfield’s victims, until bail conditions were imposed ahead of his trial and agreed with Mr Vine’s characterisation the ex-DJ had ‘weaponised the internet’ against those he targeted.
‘As you quoted, your aim was to haunt your victims; they believed you would never go away,’ the judge said.
Mr. Justice Saini said that while Belfield had a right to free expression, he “wasn’t entitled to ruin the personal lives” of individuals he targeted, who had “no escape” until police bail restrictions ended the harassment after his arrest.
The judge also imposed a restraining order prohibiting Belfield from contacting his victims until further notice and ordered him to pay £10,000 in court fees.
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