Alex Belfield case: Stalking victim Philip Dehany to seek damages

Philip Dehany said the stalking had destroyed his confidence

A man stalked by YouTuber Alex Belfield is seeking compensation, following what a judge described as "a vicious and continued campaign of abuse".

Former theatre blogger Philip Dehany, who said much of the abuse was homophobic, is now raising legal fees to make a claim for harassment.

Last year, Belfield was convicted of stalking four people, including Mr Dehany and broadcaster Jeremy Vine.

During the trial, he reported on his own court case in videos posted online.

In two of those videos, Belfield - a former BBC presenter - referred to Mr Dehany as having a "lifelong condition", in an apparent allusion to the fact he is HIV positive.

Mr Dehany had disclosed his HIV status while giving evidence in the trial, but this was not reported by any of the journalists who covered it.

"The videos didn't serve any purpose, other than it just felt like it was one last parting blow, one last chance for him to stick the knife in," Mr Dehany said.

"And to have it promoted on his channel where he was making money from it as well, I just could not accept it.

"It was incredibly difficult to have that information out there."

Alex Belfield was convicted of four charges following a trial at Nottingham Crown Court

Belfield has already agreed to pay damages to Jeremy Vine following a civil claim for defamation.

If Mr Dehany is successful in his claim, and Belfield is ordered to pay back his legal fees, he has promised to donate them to HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust.

He said the charity supported him when he was having difficulty coping with Belfield's stalking, and the videos he posted during the trial.

"Because I had previously supported the Terrence Higgins Trust by running a marathon for them, I knew that people would deduce that I was HIV positive from Belfield's comments," he said.

"Although my close friends and family knew about it, it wasn't something that I wanted everybody to know."

Mr Dehany believes he came to Belfield's attention through his work as a theatre blogger.

Belfield started tagging him in tweets and posting YouTube videos about him in early 2020.

"When he started posting videos about me I noticed he was saying horrible things to other people, but I didn't realise he had been doing it for over a decade," Mr Dehany said.

Belfield made about 30 videos about Mr Dehany over a year.

Speaking about the videos, Mr Dehany said: "A lot of them were directed at my sexuality. He would make homophobic comments about me and insult me."

Mr Dehany then wrote an article about Belfield on his blog to warn other people.

"That's when it got even more serious, because he then started to send me threatening emails, and they all seemed to be with this legal jargon that I didn't understand, and I wasn't sure if they were real," Mr Dehany said.

"He was telling me that he was contacting police, he was telling me he was going to take legal action against me."

'Felt powerless'

Mr Dehany tried to ignore Belfield, who then targeted Mr Dehany's parents instead.

He found his parents' telephone number, spoke to his mother on the phone, and threatened to broadcast the phone call online if Mr Dehany did not remove his article.

"That was, I think, the hardest thing to deal with," Mr Dehany said.

"When he was just attacking me I could kind of try to take it on the chin, but when he started to target my parents and was contacting them I just felt powerless.

"There was no way I could stop him."

While Belfield was only convicted of stalking four people, including Mr Dehany and broadcaster Jeremy Vine, the trial judge made restraining orders to protect a further four complainants from Belfield's actions.

"Each of them suffered serious mental health problems arising from Mr Belfield's conduct," the judge said.

Belfield worked in BBC local radio before starting his YouTube channel

Belfield targeted three of the complainants because they had been colleagues when he was a presenter at BBC Radio Leeds.

However, Belfield had never met Mr Dehany in real life. Even now, the only time they have been in the same room was during the trial.

"This is the bizarre thing about this case," Mr Dehany said.

"Even though he was convicted for stalking, I've never met him."

'Destroyed my confidence'

Even though Belfield has been jailed and there is a restraining order to protect Mr Dehany, he is still affected by Belfield's actions.

"This is something that's never going to go away," he said.

"It's something that I now live with. It destroyed my confidence, it made me worried to go on social media.

"And because of this legacy that he has, I'm still now getting messages from other people defending him, and on his behalf attacking me, which is something I don't think will ever stop."

Belfield was abusive towards Mr Dehany in videos recorded from his home

He hopes the civil case will provide some resolution.

He initially instructed a solicitor in an attempt to get Belfield's new videos taken down, and was then advised he had a case for harassment.

"For me, although we got the criminal conviction, that was a verdict that was put on to Alex Belfield, it wasn't something he accepted or acknowledged himself," Mr Dehany said.

"With the civil case and asking for an apology, it's a declaration that he did do what he was found guilty of, and I think until I get that people are still going to speculate and still going to think that he did nothing wrong."

Mr Dehany is using the same solicitor as Mr Vine, but Belfield has not settled with Mr Dehany.

He said he has already paid £5,500 to start the claim, but needs £15,000 to prepare the case and is raising money through a CrowdJustice page.