Belfield was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for stalking Jeremy Vine and other victims, having been jailed in September 2022 for causing alarm and distress to two victims and for stalking another two, including BBC presenter Jeremy Vine and BBC Radio Northampton presenter Bernard Spedding. In 2022, he was convicted of four charges committed between 2012 and 2021. During the trial, Belfield was dubbed the 'Jimmy Savile of trolling' by Jeremy Vine, and his harassment campaign involved trolling Vine on X, claiming Vine stole money from a friend's memorial fund, emailing Vine, and harassing him via YouTube on a channel titled 'Alex Belfield - The Voice of Reason'.
Before Belfield's release, Jeremy Vine shared concern about what would happen after he left prison, and after sentencing, Vine shared that his daughters were terrified of Belfield and didn't want to leave the house, with his youngest daughter bursting into tears. As part of his sentence, restraining orders were put in place to ban Belfield from contacting his victims, though the specific details of these orders have not been made public. In January this year, Belfield said in an interview with podcaster Liam Tuffs that he had been made the subject of a 'court order that we cannot cross'.
I expect he will set up again as 'The Voice of Reason'. He'll have his little merry band of followers.
The Prison and Probation Service did not share how Belfield had breached his licence conditions, and the current status or duration of his recall to prison remains unclear. A Prison and Probation Service spokesperson stated that, as this case shows, they do not hesitate to send offenders back to prison if they break the rules.
He must have inspired the book, as it was the idea that someone can reach you through your screen.
My youngest daughter was 13 then and she burst into tears when I told her there may be somebody who wants to