Help Stop ex BBC Presenter and Stalker Who Harassed Me
Help Stop ex BBC Presenter and Stalker Who Harassed Me
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Latest: Nov. 24, 2023
UPDATE: I am continuing my civil case against stalker Alex Belfield.
First of all, I want to thank everyone who has donated.
This experience has been incredibly traumatic and difficult, but I have decided that I will continue my ongoing civil case against my stal…
Read moreI am Philip Dehany and I need your help. I was a theatre blogger and am now a volunteer for the Terrence Higgins Trust.
I am one of the several victims who were harassed by former BBC presenter Alex Belfield, which led to him being jailed for five and a half years. After his trial concluded, but before he was sentenced, Belfield publicly revealed information about my HIV status. I am now claiming compensation from him in the civil courts, under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
Belfield’s awful campaign of harassment against me, (much of which was directed at my sexuality) continued even during and after his trial. He constantly published harassing videos about me and others, and made a lot of money from YouTube advertising revenue and by asking for donations from his followers.
The impact upon me has been huge - my reputation has been seriously damaged and I lost my passion, confidence and ultimately my income as a theatre blogger. I am now seeking therapy.
I have already spent over £4,000 in legal fees and have to pay £1,500 more for the work which has been done to get me to this stage.
Unless Belfield agrees to settle with me, which seems very unlikely, I will have no choice but to issue court proceedings against him and my costs to take the matter all the way to trial could reach £100,000.
If you are able to help, donate or share my story, thank-you.
Timeline-
I first complained to the BBC legal department about Belfield’s behaviour on 1 January 2020. They advised me to contact the police.
On 12 April 2020, I reported Belfield’s behaviour to YouTube as “Hateful or Abusive content”.
On 17 April 2020, I first filed a “hate crime/incident reporting form” to the Metropolitan Police.
On 10 August 2020, I emailed DC Janet Percival at Nottingham Police, after being informed that she was dealing with multiple complaints regarding Alex Belfield. It was Nottinghamshire Police who decided to pursue the criminal case against Belfield.
On 5 October 2020, I received a letter from Alex Belfield’s solicitor, Henri Brandman, threatening to sue me for damages, for claiming that Belfield “abused and harassed BBC colleagues for a number of years” (which of course he had).
On 25 October 2020, I filed a further criminal complaint against Alex Belfield.
On 16 June 2021, Alex Belfield was charged with 12 counts of stalking by causing serious alarm or distress which had a substantial adverse effect on the complainants' usual day-to-day activities. He was accused of stalking eight individuals (including me) between 25 November 2012 and 31 March 2021.
From 26 to 27 July 2022, I attended Nottingham Crown Court to present two days of evidence against Alex Belfield during the five week trial ‘R v Belfield’.
On 27, 29 and 30 July 2022, Alex Belfield uploaded three new videos on his YouTube channel in relation to my HIV status.
On 5 August 2022, Belfield was found guilty of stalking four people, including myself and BBC Presenter Jeremy Vine.
On 6 August 2022, I commenced my civil claim against Alex Belfield, instructing Judith Thompson at Samuels Solicitors.
On 16 August 2022 YouTube refused to take down the videos that Belfield posted about my HIV+ status, saying “they were unable to identify a violation”.
On 16 September 2022, Alex Belfield was jailed for five and a half years.
On 28 February 2023, Samuels Solicitors submitted a letter of claim to Alex Belfield. He has not responded positively, and therefore I now have no option but to issue a claim in the High Court, to sue Alex Belfield for damages.
Read my blog:
ALEX BELFIELD: The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth
I have begun to update this article with my full account of what happened.
I will be uploading all of my evidence that was submitted during the five week trial, and detailing every step of this horrendous ordeal and how it affected me.
Further reading:
These are the sentencing remarks from the case ‘R v Belfield’ detailing the full case:
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/R-v-Belfield-sentencing-160922.pdf
This is an article published in The Guardian including an interview I did with Helen Pidd.
This is a news article published in the Guardian after Belfield was sentenced.
This is a news article published in the Guardian after Belfield was found guilty.
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Philip Dehany
Nov. 24, 2023
UPDATE: I am continuing my civil case against stalker Alex Belfield.
First of all, I want to thank everyone who has donated.
This experience has been incredibly traumatic and difficult, but I have decided that I will continue my ongoing civil case against my stalker Alex Belfield for harassment, and have created this video to explain more.
I have now paid my solicitor nearly £15,000 to proceed.
Having original paid over £4,000 in legal fees in October 2022. I failed to reach an out of court settlement with Belfield.
Last July I launched this crowd funder to raise money to help with my escalating legal costs, and initially raised a further £1,850.
I pledged to pay forward all the donations to HIV charities, the Terrence Higgins Trust, Positive East and the Food Chain, if I win and Belfield is ordered to pay back my legal costs.
Despite the generosity of everyone who donated, I was still far short of raising the total of £15,000 in order to proceed with my case. Without this, I would lose every penny that I had already spent.
I received a huge volume of criticism and abuse from people online, in response to my crowd funder.
As you will know, Alex Belfield was jailed for five a half years for stalking myself and three others, after making homophobic videos about me, and harassing and blackmailing me and my family.
Before he was sentenced, Belfield posted videos outing me as HIV+.
I began legal action to have this videos removed, because YouTube refused to take them down.
I did not make any videos about Belfield until a year after he was sentenced and jailed, and only after he refused to settle my civil case.
I went public, and spoke for the first time about what Belfield did to me, and how it made me feel.
I did not expect to be scrutinised and victim shamed for asking for help.
I had said all along, that I intend to pay forward every donation that I received. None of the money will ever go into my pocket.
I specifically used the platform Crowd Justice to ensure that all the donations are paid directly to my solicitor, and that I do not see a penny of them.
The criticism I received for taking legal action, and for standing up for myself, has been horrendous.
I have had people call me a “tin rattling” “grifter” a “con man” a “liar” and a “money grabber” and accuse me of being a “scammer” and “begging” and told that I was “as bad as Belfield”.
I was told to “man up” “grow up” and to stop “crying” “get a job” and “pay my own bills”
People also left homophobic comments and accused me of trying to “finically ruin” Belfield.
Belfield had the opportunity to make all this go away by accepting the very generous offer that I made, I was even prepared to sign a non disclosure agreement.
I listened. I’ve reflected, and I decided what to do next.
I was the first person to stand up to Belfield and call out his behaviour that led to him being stopped and imprisoned. The judge recognised that Belfield “weaponised the internet” to target and harass me.
The legacy and example that he left is sadly reflected in the comments and abuse that I continue to face.
For this reason, I will continue to fight and defend myself, against online trolls and bullies.
I have now had to pay my solicitor £9000, using credit cards.
This was something I really hoped to avoid.
For those who know me, I got in to trouble when I was 21, because of credit card debt. And for many years, over a decade in fact, I purposely didn’t use credit cards.
Belfield found out about my history with credit card debt, and blackmailed me, in order to make me look un trustworthy. Even though this was something that happened 20 years ago, and even now he still write to his fans, which encourages and incites them to troll me, and to bring up my past to try and use it against me.
And that’s why I won’t stop. Until Belfield is made accountable.
I just want to get on with my life, and put this all behind me, yet I can’t whilst Belfield continues to write to people about me, despite a restraining order.
My barrister Gervase de Wilde, who also represented Jeremy Vine in his defamation case against Belfield, has now been instructed to prepare the particulars of my claim against Belfield for harassment.
There will still be more costs, which I will find a way to pay, but I’m not going to beg or ask for anyone to help me.
My crowd funder is still live, if you do want to help me, and as I say any money that I raise through that will then be paid to HIV charities once I win the costs back.
Any donations raised through Crowd Justice will continue go directly to Samuel Solicitors.
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me, and checked in on me, because this has been tough, and I really did hit rock bottom, and if it wasn’t for the charities including Postive East, the Food Chain and the Terrence Higgins Trust, I probably wouldn’t be here. And that is why I am doing this. For them, and for myself.
To everyone who did donate, thank you, honestly from the bottom of my heart, I will ensure that that money does end up going to those charities to help the people that need it.
I’m not going to make anymore videos about Belfield, I could, there’s lots more you should know, but I’ve said enough. Belfield wants his day in court, OK. Let’s go.
Philip Dehany
Sept. 1, 2023
Coverage for my case on BBC News.
I did some interviews for The BBC News this week, discussing my Crowd Justice campaign.
Here are the links to both the radio and TV and online interviews:
BBC Radio Nottingham (8 mins)
BBC East Midlands Today (2 mins)
BBC News (online)
Or you can read the article online:
Philip Dehany
Aug. 13, 2023
Please help me! I now need to raise £15,000 to sue Alex Belfield
Having spent £5,500 submitting a letter of claim to Alex Belfield.
He has not responded positively.
I now need to raise £15,000 to pay for the Particulars of Claim to sue Alex Belfield for damages.
Click here to donate ⤵️
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-stop-ex-bbc-presenter-alex-belfield/
And I promise…
If I am successful and Alex Belfield is ordered to pay back my legal fees.
I will donate every penny I raise through Crowd Justice to the HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust.
If you are able to continue to support me, by sharing my story, thank you.
This video contains clips from
This video contains clips from Adrian Allen, BlackBeltBarrister, Professor Tim Wilson, Retro On His Bike, and Katie Hopkins.
Thank you also to Adrian Allen who invited me to talk on his YouTube channel for the first time about my experience being harassed by Alex Belfield.
You can watch the full video here:
Philip Dehany
July 31, 2023
£1,500 raised so far! THANK YOU!! so much.
Together, we have reached the initial target of £1500, which has now been sent to my solicitor to pay for work already done.
I now need to continue to raise £15,000 to pay for the Particulars of Claim.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who donated, shared my story, watched any of my videos and sent kind and supportive messages.
I read them all, and really appreciate them.
Thank you also to Adrian Allen who invited me to talk on his YouTube channel for the first time about my experience being harassed by Alex Belfield.
You can watch the full video here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/pG0ISmVNWcI?feature=share
If you are able to continue to support me, by sharing my story, thank you.
Phil.
Philip Dehany
July 30, 2023
THANK YOU! NEW article in Sunday Mirror and NEW videos on YouTube
Hello!
Thank you SO much for donating, the response has been incredible, and has helped towards paying off my existing legal bill.
There is still a long way to go as the net stage will including raising £10,000 -15,000 to pay for the Particulars of Claim.
But your help so far has brought me one closer to that goal.
Today the Sunday Mirror published an article about my story, and the support I have from Jeremy Vine and the other victims. They are all remarkable people, and I am doing this for them. So that we all get the vindication that we need.
This is a link to the article:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/jeremy-vines-incredible-gesture-fellow-30584215
I have also produced a series of videos on YouTube to offer more insight into my story, these can be found here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFIBC_TD2-OYaozoIjnzdp3L1GimsAgH1
For now, thank you from the bottom of my heart. None of this has been easy, but your support and kindness has really helped, and means the world to me.
Many thanks,
Phil.
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