The BBC has issued an apology over its handling of staff welfare in the case of convicted stalker and former Radio Leeds DJ Alex Belfield.
Belfield, whose convictions included one of “simple stalking” against Radio 2 mainstay Jeremy Vine, had a career that spanned television, radio and print and included celebrity interviews from Cilla Black to Barry Manilow, presented the mid-morning show on BBC Radio Leeds in the noughties.
In 2010 he made lewd comments on-air about Look North weather presenter and Countryfile Diaries presenter-to-be Keeley Donovan, that resulted in complaints from listeners. Belfield was suspended from the station for a day and strongly reprimanded by BBC bosses. He would resign from the station the same year after seven years.
Despite his promising early career, which his own website modestly admits involved being “one of the busiest, most successful & respected artistes in British media & entertainment” who has “never had a proper job,” Belfield would ultimately rebrand himself as “The Voice of Reason” through his alt-right YouTube channel of the same name, subtitled “the home of Free Speech UK,” and originally called Celebrity Radio.
The YouTube channel went mysteriously silent in January 2021.
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In June 2021, Belfield was summonsed to appear at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court, where he was charged with eight counts of stalking “involving fear of violence or serious alarm or distress,” mostly against current or former BBC staff. The following month he appeared at Nottingham Crown Court accused of stalking offences between November 2012 and March 2021.
In September 2022, Belfield was convicted of four stalking charges, including the high-profile case against Vine, theatre blogger Philip Dehany, videographer Ben Hewis and BBC Radio Northampton presenter Bernard Spedding, aka Bernie Keith, and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.
Belfield was found not guilty of a further four stalking offences against Rozina Breen, Belfield’s former boss at Radio Leeds; Liz Green, a fellow presenter; Helen Thomas, another former boss, and Stephanie Hirst, a transgender activist and presenter who joined the station after Belfield had left.
The judge did, however, issue restraining orders on Belfield against all complainants, including those he had not been convicted of stalking. He added that, although they did not question the jurors verdicts, the women “suffered a campaign of harassment by email and social media communications. Each of them suffered serious mental health problems arising from Mr Belfield’s conduct.”
The Guardian reported at the time that, before sentencing, Belfield was “allowed to deliver a pompous closing speech deriding the case as a ‘BBC and police witch-hunt’ and describing himself as ‘the No 1 anti-BBC journalist.'”
The judge in the case, who had heard how one of Belfield’s victims came close to taking their own life, further noted that while Belfield acknowledged the distress he had caused his victims, he showed more concern during the proceedings about being treated unfairly and how the process impacted him personally. An appeal bid was refused in February 2023.
In May 2024, the Nottinghamshire police detective who had led the stalking investigation into Belfield won a libel case against him. Belfield had falsely accused the detective of being corrupt, lying in court and colluding with the BBC in a witch hunt against him. Belfield later retracted all his comments, issued a “sincere and unqualified apology” and was ordered to pay substantial damages along with compensation for legal costs to the police detective.
Today, the BBC issued an apology on its website titled: “Apology on handling of staff welfare in Alex Belfield case”.
The apology read: “People who work for the BBC are often in the public eye and under scrutiny however, it is unacceptable for anyone to be the target of sustained abuse in the way that Rozina Breen, Elizabeth Green, Stephanie Hirst and Helen Thomas were over a number of years. The BBC cares deeply about the welfare of its staff and we recognise that before 2019 we simply didn’t do enough for these members of staff in understanding the full impact that Alex Belfield’s unacceptable behaviour had on them. For that we are deeply sorry and offer a full and unreserved apology.
“Abuse – particularly on social media – presents lots of challenges for employers and we all need to keep learning and implement the best practice on how we can support our staff. That’s why the BBC has an online abuse guidance and reporting tool – which today provides all staff with information and support on how to address and combat online abuse. The BBC has also expanded its mental wellbeing resources and strengthened our internal investigative capabilities. We are significantly better equipped to manage these issues now and in the future, but we will never be complacent.”
Vine was among the first to respond online:
Image: Alex Belfield/Creative Commons
