The detective who caught the prolific cyberstalker Alex Belfield fears he has restarted his online campaign of vitriol after being released from prison.
Detective Constable Janet Percival began building the case against the former DJ for BBC Radio Leeds in 2019.
It was thanks in large part to her efforts that in August 2022, Belfield, 45, was found guilty of stalking four people and jailed for five and a half years the following month.
His victims included the Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine, who dubbed Belfield ‘the Jimmy Savile of trolling after being subjected to ‘an avalanche of hatred’ of repeated abusive messages, videos and emails.
But although he was only freed from prison in June, after serving half his sentence in HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire, Percival argues that Belfield has once again returned to his online trolling pastime.
He has returned to posting daily videos on YouTube, where he still has almost 350,000 followers, claiming that he was a political prisoner.
He has criticised some of his victims without directly naming them and supported hard-right activists such as Tommy Robinson.
Although his early release means he has to follow a number of licence conditions.
Detective Constable Janet Percival fears prolific cyberstalker Alex Belfield has restarted his online campaign of vitriol after being released from prison
Ex-BBC presenter Alex Belfield (seen arriving at Nottingham Crown Court in 2022) has returned to posting daily videos on YouTube, claiming that he was a political prisoner
He still has almost 350,000 followers on YouTube, and has used his videos to criticise some of his victims without directly naming them
On Friday, he sent a message to his subscribers saying that he had just been banned from uploading ‘any material on any app or site’, and that he would be returned to prison if he did.
While he was in prison, Belfield had a clock on his website that ticked down the seconds to his release and two videos were posted on his ‘Voice of Reason’ YouTube channel – although they were taken down.
Detective Percival told the Sunday Times: ‘I’m absolutely disgusted that a convicted stalker can come out of prison, pick up where he left off and claim he’s a political prisoner for “hurty words”.
‘Belfield weaponised the internet and he’s been doing it again.’
Detective Percival, who retired from Nottinghamshire police in December, has herself been a target of Belfield’s abuse in the past.
When she was investigating him, he started posting YouTube videos about her, falsely alleging she had lied to judges, and accusing her of being corrupt.
In his most recent videos he called the police corrupt, and although he didn’t name her, Detective Percival said: ‘I know that’s aimed at me.’
She now wants the Ministry of Justice to ensure that when cyberstalkers are released from prison, their licence conditions prevent them from using social media – something that already happens with sex offenders.
Convicted stalker Alex Belfield leaves HMP Fosse Way in Leicester after serving half of his sentence in June 2025
After he left prison, Belfield posed with tape over his mouth and holding up a picture of Winston Churchill with the words ‘Never, never, never give up’
A jubilant Belfield was seen carrying a black holdall with an image of US President Donald Trump alongside the words ‘Never Surrender’ after his release
Detective Percival told the broadsheet she doesn’t think ‘it’s fair’ that the victims have to ‘relive the lies’ and that it is wrong he’s been allowed access to social media.
Belfield was employed by the BBC on a temporary contract for less than a year in 2010 but several complaints from staff about his behaviour meant bosses chose not to renew his employment.
The Sunday Times previously reported that he grilled a young producer and called her useless’, a comment which led to her crying in the toilets.
After he left the BBC, the tirade of hateful comments started with his initial targets being the former colleagues who he thought had been involved in his departure.
It began with defamatory and vulgar emails — copying in BBC bosses and others in the industry — but later it developed into posting abuse on his YouTube channel and on Twitter.
He repeatedly created new email addresses when he was blocked.
This went on for nearly a decade, until the BBC eventually contacted the police.
After he was found guilty, the judge said Belfield’s motive was ‘personal grudges and responses to real or apparent slights,’ rather than to ‘exercise his journalistic freedom to comments on matters of public interest.’
While he was in prison, Belfield had a clock on his website that ticked down the seconds to his release
During the criminal trial, Mr Vine labelled Belfield ‘the Jimmy Savile of trolling’. Jurors heard he repeatedly posted or sent abusive messages, videos and emails
During the criminal trial, Vine sobbed as he recalled how he had to install security cameras as he feared one of Belfield’s ‘disciples’ would launch a knife or acid attack on him or his family.
It was also heard the former local DJ had made 24 references to Vine in his online content in one 14-day period, with the Radio 2 host forced to put a picture of Belfield in the hallway to warn his teenage daughter to be on guard in public.
Belfield agreed to pay ‘substantial’ damages to Mr Vine in 2023 for making ‘false allegations of dishonesty’ in a separate civil legal action over his ‘campaign of defamation and harassment’.
And his lawyer said he offered his ‘sincere and unqualified apology’ to Ms Percival for the ’embarrassment and distress’ caused to her.
Ms Percival told the Sunday Times that people often struggle to see cyberstalking as on a par with stalking in person.
But she argued that what they don’t realise is that the person is ‘effectively in their house’, because the email is popping up on their mobile can do ‘huge psychological damage’.
When he released his first video about Percival, his followers sent more than 400 complaints about her to the police professional standards.
In his videos, he repeatedly called her ‘stupid’ and offered his followers money to ‘find dirt’ on her – as well as emailing her chief constable.
And although she said she put on a ‘brave face’, the online abuse did cause her some stress as ‘I’m human’.
In one of his recent YouTube videos, Belfield can be seen advertising his recently published book, ‘Surviving the Slammer’, which covers his time inside for cyber stalking
Ms Percival’s husband, a lorry driver, was so furious that she had to stop him from reacting.
Google-owned YouTube demonetised Belfield’s account in 2022 — meaning that he does not receive revenue from advertising on the platform.
However he is still able to use the video platform for publicity, allowing him to sell his books and merchandise. He has just published the book, ‘Surviving the Slammer’, which covers his time inside for cyber stalking.
Although his planned tour was cancelled due to concerns by the Probation Service that it would break his licence conditions.
Percival believes YouTube should do more but said she was told by a tech guy who deals with cybercrimes that the platform ‘will basically only take videos down if it’s paedophilia’.
When asked if she thinks Belfield will ever stop, Percival responds with a resolute ‘no’.
She said the forensic psychologist she worked with on the case told her he won’t stop until he feels vindicated and ‘he’ll never feel vindicated’.
Percival said it has never been a freedom of speech fight but that it’s actually just all about money.
She argues that this is why he ‘jumps on every cause’ such as Tommy Robinson and Lucy Connolly, as he’s ‘just a grifter’.
