Summary
Alex Belfield Journalist and Radio Presenter describes in detail the events at Nottingham Crown Court
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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[Music]