Woman guilty over harassing TV star

Crimewatch presenter Rav Wilding feared he could be attacked like murdered predecessor Jill Dando after being bombarded with abusive internet messages by a woman from the Black Country, a court heard.

Toneeta Beckford, aged 24, was found guilty of harassment after sending dozens of obscene messages and lewd photographs through Facebook and Twitter to the former policeman during a three month period, forcing him to increase security levels at the BBC.

Magistrates were told Beckford, of New Hope Road in Smethwick, had briefly become a Muslim and sent references to Allah and "judgement day" in her messages, including one which stated he would be "begging Allah for mercy.

Many of the emails and posts contained insults and four-letter tirades, as well as "bizarre" rants including: "I hope you bite your tongue eating jelly babies."

She also told him he had wrinkles, was too old to celebrate his birthday and would never win Strictly Come Dancing.

The 32 year old former detective constable, who was third to be eliminated in the dancing series last year, told the court she had sent him a message saying she hoped he broke his leg on the show.

He told magistrates the messages were "highly insulting and very, very scary."

"It made me feel threatened because of the religious extremist views and these constant references to judgement day," he said.

"Obviously in the work I do with Crimewatch, my predecessor was murdered in her job so I have to take security very, very seriously," he said.

"It's very difficult now to be as open with the public or invite them into my Twitter world because I'm scared that this could happen again. We had to increase security at the BBC and I've had to be careful about using public transport."

He said he was aware Beckford had been arrested and bailed and shortly afterwards she sent him messages saying she loved him with "sexually explicit" photographs of her posing in her underwear.

Beckford had denied a charge of harassment despite admitting sending the messages, but was found guilty following a two-and-a-half hour trial.

Beckford admitted sending abusive messages but said she not think they amounted to harassment. She said she was still grieving following the death of her former boyfriend in a car crash in 2008 and was depressed and suicidal. She will be sentenced on April 30.