Belfield, a former BBC Leeds presenter turned YouTuber, has waged a relentless campaign of stalking against several journalists, with Vine branding him “the Jimmy Savile of trolling” after he repeatedly posted or sent abusive messages, videos and emails. Bellfield, 42, was convicted at Nottingham Crown Court last month of four counts of stalking, committed between 2012 and last year. Jurors accepted he caused serious alarm or distress to two victims and was found guilty of “simple” stalking in relation to Channel 5 and BBC Radio 2 Vine presenter and theater blogger Philip Dehany. In an interview with the Times, Vine spoke about how the hardest part of his ordeal was telling his teenage daughters to be careful leaving the house, as he worried Belfield would incite one of his 360,000 followers to come forward to the family’s Ambelou home and physically assault them. “Because he’s a coward, Belfield would never come to my house himself, but my fear was that someone inspired by him would come and attack me or my children because of the hatred he had for me,” Vine said. . “My youngest daughter was 13 at the time and she burst into tears when I told her there might be someone out there who wants to hurt her. He doesn’t even know my daughter’s name, but she is one of his victims.” She said it took a year before she regained the confidence to leave home. Former BBC local radio DJ Alex Belfield (PA Wire) Belfield took aim at Vine online, spreading vitriol about the presenter and claiming he had stolen £1,000 from a charity. Vine said: “On YouTube, his videos have had 500,000 views – it’s so weird that people are watching, like watching a car accident. “I lost sleep over it. These people want to get into your head, and in the end, they do. You end up thinking, “How did I deserve this?” I just collided with this bullet of hate. It’s like hitting someone on the street and they stab you.” In court, the judge said there was “no escape” for Bellfield’s victims until bail conditions were imposed ahead of his trial and said he agreed with Vine’s characterization that the former DJ had “weaponised the internet” against those he targeted .
