Television and radio presenter Jeremy Vine has testified in court against a former BBC announcer accused of harassment, describing how he was the target of an “avalanche of hatred”.
Vine, who presents programs on BBC Radio 2 and Channel 5, spoke in Nottingham Crown Court during the trial of former BBC Radio Leeds presenter Alex Belfield.
Vine said Belfield had launched an abuse campaign against him via social media and YouTube.
He told a jury, “This isn’t a regular troll here. This is the troll’s Jimmy Savile.”
Referring to the videos shown in court at Belfield’s YouTube show, Vine said he wished he hadn’t seen some of the content.
He said: “Seeing this man is like swimming in wastewater.
“I thought, ‘It’s absolutely disgusting’ … I found it shocking and distressing and worried.”
Vine told the court he had previously been the target of a bully who had physically followed him in real life, but said that person was “a picnic” compared to Belfield.
At one point, Vine said, “I notice the defendant is smiling during my trial. He won’t stop me.”
Prosecutors allege that Belfield, 42, caused a serious alarm or distress to Vine, former BBC Radio Leeds mid-morning presenter Stephanie Hirst and BBC Radio Northampton’s Bernie Keith.
In opening the Crown case against Belfield, prosecutor John McGuinness QC said Vine was subjected to a “constant bombardment” of harassing tweets and YouTube videos in 2020.
The court was told that Belfield, of Mapperley, Nottingham, started as a local radio broadcasting assistant and in recent years had created a YouTube channel known as Celebrity Radio.
He denies eight charges of harassment allegedly committed between 2012 and 2021, including three charges related to two executives and another presenter who worked at BBC Radio Leeds.
Vine said, “I felt like I had a fish hook on my face and my flesh was breaking and the only way to avoid more pain was to stay completely still.
“They got me down a lot. I just thought, ‘It doesn’t make sense to issue if the effect is that I have this.’
He told the court he had received between 5,000 and 10,000 hate tweets following the defendant’s comments.
The case was postponed until Thursday.