Alex Bellfield gets 5 and a half year jail sentence, for calling out the BBC

A POPULAR British YouTube presenter and ex-BBC employee has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for a ‘campaign of harassment’ against BBC employees and journalists.

Over a nine-year period, Nottingham Crown Court heard, Alex Belfield (pictured above) posted regular messages on his social media accounts, sent emails, and made YouTube videos about the four complainants, including Jeremy Vine. Belfield justified his online actions by stating: “I am a journalist who is instinctively going to upset people by the nature of what I do. Nobody wants to be exposed. Nobody wants to be caught out.”

Belfield’s charges stated that he “pursued a course of conduct that amounted to harassment of the complainants,” which caused them “serious alarm and distress” and “amounted to stalking”.

According to the Yorkshire Evening Post, “Belfield denies eight counts of stalking spanning a period between 2012 and 2021, after his contract with BBC Radio Leeds was not renewed.”

Despite the deceiving mainstream headlines, Mr Belfield was not accused of physical stalking against the complainants, who were mostly made up of current or former BBC staff. Prosecutor John McGuinness said: “The stalking which this case is concerned with is of a different type - and is more akin to internet trolling.”

One of the BBC’s top earners, Jeremy Vine, described Belfield’s online behaviour as “like an avalanche of hatred you get hit by” and “absolutely Olympic-level stalking, even for broadcasting”. In an arguably despicable comparison, Vine labelled Belfield the “Jimmy Savile of trolling” during the trial. He said: “This is not a regular troll here. This is the Jimmy Savile of trolling.” Vile and evil Jimmy Savile was an BBC employee for decades, and was one of the UK’s most serial sexual predators.

Belfield responded to the deplorable association with Savile by saying: “What possible reason could Jeremy Vine have said this in front of you other than to destroy me and get the headline of the century, which he did. He thought of the most evil, awful person in media history and compared him to me. For him to associate me with Jimmy Savile is unthinkable.”

Vine continued: “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 remain completely still.” Belfield called Vine’s antics in court as “the cleverest razzle-dazzle I’ve ever seen.”

Belfield, who defended himself in court, said in his closing speech that the BBC was trying to “shut me up” because of “inconvenient truths”. He added: “As a whistle-blower of the BBC, I was there for 15 years and I saw where the bodies are buried, if you like, and I saw where they wasted money.”

Belfield told the court he had a right to freedom of speech and had legitimate reasons for posting the messages. During the court hearing Belfield told the jury:

“I’m a Nottingham lad with a potty mouth and I speak as I find it, and I appreciate that’s not to everyone’s taste. People who claim I was stalking them were actively seeking out my content. Human rights allow me to have free speech in this country, until you are given bail conditions where you cannot speak.”

Popular online political and social observer Paul Joseph Watson tweeted about the case:

“5 years in prison for ‘online harassment’ (tweets mainly) while members of grooming gangs up and down the country avoid jail. Absurd.”

Outspoken media personality Katie Hopkins responded to the case outcome by saying:

“I wanted to say that the big lesson from this whole affair has been that today in the UK you can be put in prison for five and a half years because of people’s feelings.”

Belfield hosted a YouTube channel called The Voice of Reason with a large, subscribed following of more than 350,000. Belfield is often described as a ‘marmite’ type presenter and is known for his sneery, crude sarcastic language. His presenting style is not to everyone’s taste as he mentioned at Nottingham Crown Court.

However, the severe custodial sentencing handed out to Alex Belfield for ‘cyberstalking’, or serious online trolling, sets a worrying precedent for the future of free speech online, and plays nicely into the hands of advocates for the proposed UK Online Safety Bill.

The sentencing appears politically motivated and entirely disproportionate to the alleged crimes he committed. The apparent witch-hunt and piling on from the BBC during the case may act as a deterrent to anyone wishing to go up against large institutions in the future, but shouldn’t.

YouTube - Alex Belfield, Voice of Reason