howdy chunky it’s monday the 25th of

july my name is alex spellfield this is

the voice of reason with the court

report at nottingham crown court today

day 16 week four

of rv alex belfield the crown

v me

with eight

charges of stalking today we have two

witnesses helen grimes that’s bernie

keith bernard spedding’s boss at bbc

northampton and ben huest now how these

relate so we found out last week didn’t

we that bernie keith on air vernon

speding in real life wrote an email

anonymously uh that said he wanted to

shut me down at the end uh it was an

email that ice was quoted as saying uh

was total lies that had destroyed my

reputation and career it was published

by a man called ben hues who is today’s

witness he published it anonymously by

taking screen grabs of the email without

revealing the identity in which ben

hughes uh is quoted as encouraging his

15 000 followers on twitter

to block uh because i am basically a

dangerous person as he quoted to the

court

uh so he encouraged them to block me

that created a huge reaction which

you’ll find out during the case today

and uh ben says that he felt that he was

scared and given anxiety attacks after i

kept writing to him and the lawyers

demanding to know who wrote it

so we began on friday actually with ben

hues

he said he feared for his safety of his

family after admitting publishing the

anonymous email he said he was scared of

getting involved

he said he believed me to be a serious

uh individual uh serious harm could be

cause

he said he wouldn’t uh send it under any

circumstances to protect bernie keith

the ord uh the author of the email uh he

encouraged people to block me and uh

this was the email that said they wanted

to shut me down

as read out in court by

bernard speding last week at nottingham

crown court he said he was terrified by

my emails

and

interaction and the reason he put a

retraction which was a full apology he

made an absolute full apology uh saying

that we’d never met

and that uh he retracted everything in

the email because he couldn’t verify it

he said he was terrified by my threat

asking him to retract it that’s why he

did it

he said that i used a picture of his

wife and baby which was private and it

was absolutely um gut-wrenching he said

when he saw that picture used during

cross-examination this afternoon he

revealed that picture was his profile

picture on twitter and facebook

uh one of the bones of contention on

friday we were played a call that i made

to him just simply asking him to tell me

who did it and i would take no legal

action against him whatsoever i simply

needed to know who it was i used the

phrase i didn’t want to shoot the

messenger i simply wanted to get to the

author so i could sue them for the libel

and defamation he said he was taking

legal advice he later admitted that he

didn’t because it was 750 pounds uh an

hour and indeed he’d gone to a friend uh

who was in the business he was a

theatrical lawyer

uh he said that i published and

attached a baby scan

he later said through cross-examination

that this was in fact published publicly

on his twitter and i’d used it to

identify where he lived so that i could

put a report in to his local police

station

he said he was unaware that that had

happened he said he feared for his

family but didn’t tell his wife what was

going on he thought i’d been to his home

address but then later realized it

wasn’t me as the description was nothing

like me it terrified him he said uh the

notion that i had his address uh which

uh he said left him hugely distressed

and having panic attacks

uh he said that uh he told the court

that there was no investigation

according to ryan rowe that’s the pc we

spoke to uh on friday at nottingham

crown court he said he offered the email

to pc ryan rowe as confirmation and the

police officer pc rose said no

he said i was gaslighting him the judge

asked to explain what that meant and

that is where if you repeat something

enough it becomes true and he said that

i had said that he was a liar and a

cheat and uh that was repeated so often

that it became true uh he said he was

devastated that i had uh sent a message

to his wife begging her to sort it out

uh i know i they read the message out in

court he claimed that i’d attached the

baby scan to that message on facebook

and uh it wasn’t there he said that it

wasn’t in the evidence but it did happen

then he was talking about involving ben

in litigation uh he said uh he needed an

email to sue bernie and couldn’t

understand why i just didn’t sue but

what i maintained through every email

was that i simply want to know who did

it

uh he said he quickly deleted it before

it was sent referring to the message to

his wife so she didn’t see it which

caused him panic attacks as i continued

to simply write to bbc lawyers bbc press

office and him in open email to try and

get to the bottom of the author

uh it reached he said he reached out to

both jeremy vine and to bernie keith

his wife’s pregnancy he said was a blur

she was pregnant at the time he told the

court and said i would hound him forever

and i was a stain

he said on his uh life

uh he said the line shut him down in the

email by bernie keith was regrettable he

said he did believe in free speech

during cross-examination it was very

interesting the section about the being

a victim he said that he did believe but

it took about 20 minutes uh that the

police believed i was the victim because

somebody had anonymously sent this email

to attack me

and he couldn’t be sure

uh whether it was true or not

he said that uh mr speding wasn’t

telling the truth in places he told uh

the court he said this morning to qc

mcginnis that i had been responsible for

him losing work and that it was my fault

highly likely in fact he said uh that

there was a noticeable fall off of his

work uh it was then though pointed out

that it was during lockdown and theaters

and his video business for weddings had

of course been profoundly affected by

covid and he said yes totally of course

to

mr aubry

when cross examined about the police i’d

gone to report it to the police

he said that

he worried that the police regarded me

as the victim and that the police

thought that the email might be untrue

he said part of me feared

what was said was true half of me he

told the court

he said he believed the police treated

bellfield as the victim what i said part

of me uh the email was part of me uh i

didn’t

know whether it was a hundred percent

true this is the email written by

bernard spending that he’d later

apologize for because he couldn’t uh

stand up uh one of the accusations as we

know was that i’d sent 2 000 emails to a

boss as we heard in court last week

bernard spending uh confirmed that he’d

read on a text message from an article

in a newspaper that it was in fact four

thousand so changed uh his evidence uh

during the trial

uh so maybe spending wasn’t uh true uh

more convinced uh that mr bellfield was

dangerous dangerous the qc asked yes

he’s dangerous uh he said it was a

prolonged amount of fear

uh you want the jury to believe that you

were protecting your family above mr

spedding

the

qc aubry asked he said involving the

police protected both of them he told

the court

next we moved on to

the bbc

and he said that he was aware the bbc

were building a case

did you say they’re building a case qc

aubry asked and he said yes

there were several people that had

complained portions of this

were in bernie’s email i wasn’t aware

closer to the time he told the court

what do you mean by building a case he

says lawyers building the case

uh of people that i alex belfield had

arrest in the past

who gave you that information qc aubry

asked i don’t recall ben hughes said

so someone was building a case and you

spoke to someone about this case that

was being built did you and he said yes

i contacted the bbc

he said can you remember the name of the

person he said ben

ben he was told the court

did they identify the officer concerned

is that all they told you uh qc aubry

asked he said they gave me detail

details i think it was percival

or roe

uh mr belfield wrote in one email uh qc

aubry pointed out i have one simple

question uh in capital letters

did he write it

that was everything he wanted to know

wasn’t it mr hughes

uh qc asked yes

uh ben hughes replied so that would have

been the end of it uh then mr hughes

said safety of my family alex bellfield

is a civilian i don’t obey commands of a

civilian it was clumsy i wasn’t taking

any chances i wanted to do the right

thing

but it would have ended your involvement

wouldn’t it qc aubry asked he said yes

uh wouldn’t uh you wouldn’t want to

punish your wife and kids because of

your unspeakable uh unprovoked stupidity

was a line that i wrote in an email to

beg him to release the identity of the

author

and that was the end of it he said yes i

did write that underscoring that i

didn’t want he or his family involved in

this i simply wanted to be able to sue

the person who wrote the email

finally judge referred to a video played

in court this morning

can i just confirm

that you didn’t look at the video live

and ben hughes confirmed no i was sent

it by people on twitter to watch be

confirmed to the court so that is ben

hughes next we move on to bernard

spedding’s manager that is helen grimes

uh she was asked by qc mcginnis when she

first heard of me and she said she was

sent a post by a friend uh where i was

ranting after leaving bbc leads

she said many occasions she saw bernie

keith in tears

he felt he was not safe he was sobbing

inconsolably she told the court on many

occasions

where any of the communications uh to

you personally no she said they were

always about bernie or other matters and

indirect communications

she said that i had a habit of emailing

bosses at bbc local radio and blind

copying in other managers

in january 2020 uh bernie

was bombarded she said with uh messages

emails from me direct emails about

bernie keith

actually

him on the email it was a new scale she

said from 2020

apparently

she said that she believed it to be

something to do with a complaint that i

had about an email

but she wasn’t too sure about it

but it hugely distressed bernie keith

she said that my emails were derisory

and they weren’t nice to read

how many she said there was a large

number she said i deleted a lot

she said there could possibly be a

hundred she said but the bbc haven’t

forensically looked for the emails

she said normal complaints are rare at

the bbc uh they’re all mainly positive

ninety percent of complaints were from

me she told the court

uh she said uh regarding his small

number of commercial uh gigs theater

shows

she said that

she was responsible for complaints at

the radio station when asked in his gigs

where a process

he was going through

she told the court

she said that bernie had never faked

letters uh and non-bbc work uh couldn’t

uh she said she couldn’t recall she

couldn’t recall anything

about the non-bbc work uh there was

quite a lot

just one or two emails of complaints i’m

not sure what it’s about when asked

about an email

regarding some of bernie’s

controversies on air that i had

contacted the press office and

helen grimes his boss about she did

confirm that the press office uh get uh

email requests from the press and

journalists uh regarding his fat twerp

and bearded fool

uh she said it was to do with dog mess

on the carpet a presenter had apparently

suggested that his dog

had defecated in the studio and

she said it was um on air bernie was

joking bernie

couldn’t carry on living after my emails

she told the court she said i’ve

seriously worried about him taking his

own life he talked about buying a rope

he lived in real fear because of me

she confirmed to the court she’d never

met me

she said any direct communications not

anything other than to do with bernie or

the bbc

she was asked how do you describe the

effect since uh all this happened she

said that he talks about taking his own

life all the time

his joy has gone from his life he can’t

find any joy radio is all he’s ever

wanted to do she told the court

she said that he didn’t appear at the

radio station’s 40th birthday

uh he didn’t want to draw attention to

himself and he didn’t abseil

uh from uh because of mr bellfield she

told the court

she was asked by qc mcginnis had she

ever gone on my youtube channel she said

she did watch a clip once but as a

general rule i don’t how much time did

this take up dealing with my complaints

uh she was asked it has been

overwhelming and time-consuming it’s

drifted into my personal time in fact i

told the bbc press office never to

contact me at the weekend it even

crossed over into holidays she said it’s

huge uh my biggest issues

that was uh qc mcginnis we then moved on

to mr aubry my qc for cross-examination

uh he pointed out that she’d started in

may 2015 but then was away from november

2018 through 2020 on maternity leave

uh let’s talk about the mental health

concerns when did these first arrive

early on concerns from the start his

physical safety at the weekend was of

concern

2015 when when his mental state uh

deteriorated uh he didn’t mention

he was a grown man crying in front of me

she said she was very worried uh she

said that um there had been tears as

early as 2015 and uh i couldn’t give you

a date though she told the court uh do

you remember or don’t you remember uh

the date of mr bellfield first

communicating uh she said that it was

from the very start of her time at the

radio station and it was in the handover

notes from the previous manager

criticism of work though wasn’t it

no she said it was microaggression uh

miss grimes told the court uh mr

bellfield was deliberately copying

people into embarrass mr keith

people can criticize though she said

that’s not of concern people can

criticize

mr uh aubry then went on to talk about

the micro aggressions that she spoke of

does that refer to things like council

tax

this is referring to the testimony given

by mr spedding last week

that he had made up as part of a fantasy

court case regarding his council tax

which they claimed he owed

she didn’t know about that story she

couldn’t remember

buying a rope she said um to mr

mcguinness you talked earlier of buying

a rope when was this april 21

uh miss mcginnis told the court she said

she’d had a call from another editor and

she told the mental health department at

the bbc

and uh she said that um he’d come down

from the attic he told her he’d come

down from the attic which she believed

was reference to him trying to kill

himself

did you speak to him about this she said

i didn’t speak to him

they’d spoken to bernie but she didn’t

she said concerned about the email mr

bellfield

was accusing him of something in an

email did you speak to him about this

yes after the increasing contact

uh did he tell you uh that he was the

author of this anonymous email published

by ben hewitt the witness we heard

earlier yes

did you

see a copy i don’t recall she said did

bernie admit he’d written it i don’t

recall

him telling me about that and what do

you know about it what did you do about

it i beg your pardon she said no no

she didn’t do anything about it spedding

the concerns of the author yes you

couldn’t tell

what was the principal concern

she said the principal concern was the

aggressive email

all bernie wanted for was for it to stop

for it to stop in entirety going back to

the council tax bit where bernie uh made

things up for entertainment purposes as

he told the court

on a thursday last week did you listen

she said i didn’t specifically

listen to that i don’t remember i can’t

recall the audio i can’t remember

having a conversation about it either

tell you uh did he tell you he lied

about a summons to the court he didn’t

tell her that she told uh the court

uh let’s talk about the bearded full

segment

uh as i recall uh he apologized uh is

that language that’s acceptable at the

bbc fat twerp and bearded fool

uh is it appropriate no i don’t think it

is but he apologized that’s what we do

at the bbc did you warn him about doing

it again it didn’t need saying all right

let’s talk about pompous prick he said

that on air pompous prig he said he said

do you remember anything about that no i

don’t no i don’t is that appropriate i

don’t know if he said that

i can’t say

there is no list of banned words in uh

or context at the bbc it’s on an

individual basis she told the court uh

did he accept uh that it was

inappropriate she said i’d have to

listen to it to work out the context

i have in the past she said authorized

offensive swearing in programmes but not

at bbc northampton

next we get on to talking about the bbc

guidelines uh promoting

your own for personal gain projects i.e

the theater shows that he was promoting

on air you may remember

there was discussion of the 30 adverts

as they were described

the bbc doesn’t advertise do they

not for fair game she said it’s not

uncommon some element of that is

permitted she told the court uh he

repeated again but not for personal gain

at the bbc you can’t be financially

rewarded uh she said helen grimes bernie

keith manager it’s not as clear as that

she told the court

he asked again it’s impossible to answer

so you if you make thousands of pounds

is that permitted

she said making money is not relevant

she told the court did you tell them

making thousands of pounds she said

she’d been to the bbc uh editorial

policy department to have it signed off

that he could talk about it um did you

tell them that he was making thousands

of pounds for personal profit it was not

a bbc event it was commercial

she said that um she did tell them about

the event but she didn’t tell them about

the personal profit she didn’t think it

was relevant i didn’t ask bernie how

much money he made it’s none of our

business

uh i don’t think it’s relevant she told

the court i have no idea if bernie makes

money no idea

did you know uh did you not think it was

important to inform the editorial

department about the gain

when you inquired with them

about whether or not he was allowed to

do it in the first place she said she

didn’t think it was relevant so that was

cross-examination of helen grimes

bernard spedding’s boss bernie keith on

air at bbc northampton that’s what

happened uh with your court report today

from nottingham crown court helen grimes

and

ben hughes

were the two witnesses ben of course

started on friday concluded today

tomorrow we move to our final witness in

the eight charges of stalking uh that

man is called philip de haney and i’ll

bring you the court report tomorrow

night although that one is likely to go

into wednesday we are told uh that’s

court report for a monday evening don’t

miss the news tomorrow at 6 a.m at alex

belfield.com the court case continues at

nottingham crown court if you’re signing

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phone in at nine i’ll see you with the

court report tomorrow evening and the

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stories will be there from 6am at

alexbillfield.com

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