{"id":13475,"date":"2019-01-03T07:33:30","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T12:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=13475"},"modified":"2019-01-03T07:33:30","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T12:33:30","slug":"bbc-presenter-alex-lovells-rape-threat-stalker-jailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2019\/01\/03\/bbc-presenter-alex-lovells-rape-threat-stalker-jailed\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC presenter Alex Lovell’s rape threat stalker jailed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who stalked a BBC presenter with letters in which he threatened to rape her has been jailed.<\/p>\n

Gordon Hawthorn, 69, of Street, Somerset, sent the threats to Points West’s Alex Lovell over six years.<\/p>\n

Ms Lovell began receiving cards at the BBC’s regional centre on Whiteladies Road, Bristol, in 2012.<\/p>\n

Jailing Hawthorn for two-and-a-half years, Bristol Crown Court judge Martin Picton said the letters made Ms Lovell “frightened and miserable”.<\/p>\n

Hawthorn had previously pleaded guilty at the city’s magistrates’ court, to one count of stalking involving serious alarm or distress.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

He sent Ms Lovell letters for more than six years but they became more threatening between January 2016 and March 2018, police said.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/a>
BBC Points West presenter Alex Lovell was repeatedly sent threatening letters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His conduct “amounted to stalking and caused Ms Lovell serious alarm or distress, which had an adverse effect on her usual day-to-day activities”, the charge stated.<\/p>\n

He was caught following a police appeal, when a member of the public told officers she had received a similar card.<\/p>\n

Tests showed his DNA matched that found on cards sent to Ms Lovell.<\/p>\n

Judge Picton said Hawthorn chose to send “disgusting frightening letters, that caused serious impact” on Ms Lovell.<\/p>\n

“The letters you sent caused distress and fear. She knew the author of those letters was watching.<\/p>\n

“When out and about she couldn’t be sure you wouldn’t be watching for her. She was frightened and miserable.”<\/p>\n

\"Card<\/span>
The cards were usually signed “Gordon”, with five crosses – one large X and four small ones around it<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Card<\/span>
The victim contacted police in January 2016 when the cards started to become more threatening<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A man who stalked a BBC presenter with letters in which he threatened to rape her has been jailed. Gordon Hawthorn, 69, of Street, Somerset, sent the threats to Points West’s Alex Lovell over six […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,4],"tags":[5848,2144,5152,5850,5849,5851,1227],"class_list":{"0":"post-13475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-uk","10":"tag-alex-lovell","11":"tag-bbc","12":"tag-bristol-crown-court","13":"tag-gordon-hawthorn","14":"tag-rape-threat","15":"tag-somerset","16":"tag-stalker","17":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13478,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13475\/revisions\/13478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}