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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Seamus Duff

Jeremy Vine says stalker hell left his daughters too terrified to leave home

Jeremy Vine has explained that his daughters were left so distressed by the threats made against the family by a stalker that they were too afraid to leave the house.

Last week, former BBC DJ Alex Belfield, 42, was sentenced to five years in jail for masterminding an 11-month campaign of online harassment against 57-year-old Jeremy and other victims.

As part of his campaign, Belfield shared Jeremy’s home address online and incited followers online to turn up at the star’s home.

Belfield also made a series of slanderous videos that he shared via YouTube about Jeremy, and also sent aggressive emails to his former colleagues.

Jeremy Vine said his daughters were left so traumatised by the stalker that targeted him, they were too afraid to leave home (Tom Maddick / SWNS)

Opening up about the ordeal to The Sunday Times, Jeremy explained that the harassment had an impact on his family.

The dad-of-two explained: "My youngest daughter was 13 then and she burst into tears when I told her there may be somebody who wants to hurt her.

"He doesn’t even know my daughter’s name, but she’s one of his victims."

Jeremy went on to explain that it took a year before his daughter had regained the confidence to leave the family home.

Alex Belfield was jailed for five years at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday (Nottingham Post/BPM Media)

Last week, Nottingham Crown Court heard from another of Belfield’s victims that they feared their wife would suffer a miscarriage due to the stress his harassment caused.

Videographer Ben Hewis explained in a victim statement that was read out in court: "For almost three years I’ve been subjected to the most painfully personal attacks.

"Belfield has waged a relentless, multi-pronged intimidation and harassment campaign that has left me psychologically and emotionally drained of the vim and vigour that defined my character before."

He continued: "In multiple videos published on his YouTube channel he stole my family photos and used them alongside his vile rants and assaults on my character, calling me a bad parent for not giving into his intimidation, promising to ‘hound’ me for the rest of my life.”

And he revealed: "In one video he wrote liar across my two year old son’s face and used that as a thumbnail on a video seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

"The photos he used were of some of the happiest moments of my life - my son’s christening, our first family holiday."

Ben explained that Belfield also contacted his pregnant wife via Facebook, and he was fearful the harassment could have a detrimental impact on their unborn child.

Another one of Belfield's victims feared his pregnant wife would miscarry due to stress (Tom Maddick / SWNS)

He also stated Belfield contacted many of his clients, attempting to paint him as a “liar and criminal”.

Once Belfield was sentenced by Mr Justice Saini, Ben said he felt that “justice had been served” - with the judge also making a series of indefinite restraining orders, preventing Belfield from contacting his victims.

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