The British government has “unreservedly” apologised to BBC presenter Emily Maitlis for its failings after stalker over two decades contacted her from prison via a letter.

47 year old Edward Vines was jailed for three years back in September 2016 after twice breaching an indefinite restraining order that Maitlis had obtained against him in 2009. The two had previously been friends, having met at Cambridge University in 1989, but he was first hit with a restraining order in 2002 after she became alarmed at his behaviour in the wake of the murder of fellow TV presenter Jill Dando in 1999.

Convicting Vines and adding 45 more months to his prison sentence this week, Judge Peter Ross said that it was “something of a scandal” that Vines had been able to make contact with Maitlis despite being behind bars. He has given the Probation Service and Bicester prison’s governor 10 days to provide an explanation for what happened.

Emily MaitlisEmily Maitlis pictured in 2011

“We apologise unreservedly for this error and for the distress caused to the victim. We have significantly strengthened our monitoring procedures to prevent incidents like this from happening again,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said in reaction to the ruling.

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“We would like to reassure the victim that any future correspondence involving this offender will be carefully checked, with staff reminded of the sensitivities of this particular case.”

In a statement read to Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday (January 16th), 47 year old Maitlis said she had felt “scared and let down” after she heard Vines had breached the restraining order “even from within the prison system”. She said that the incident had affected her relationship with her husband and scared her two children, “who thought the threats had gone away... while he was behind bars”.

Sentencing Vines, the judge said: “This sort of harassment has a crippling effect on the victim. It’s psychological torture. You scared her children and affected her ability to work. It’s disgraceful conduct.”

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