Christians Under Attack

Crimewatch presenter Rav Wilding, 32, said he was bombarded with 'vile and grotesque' abuse over the internet by Muslim convert Toneeta Beckford.

She also sent him pictures of herself posing in a thong and messages containing extremist religious rants.

One warned him: 'Don't **** with me Rav... I will see you right on Judgment Day.'

Another said: 'Who the **** do you think you are? It's not your world, it's Allah's... you will see me go to Paradise and I will see you go to Hell.'

Mr Wilding, who was appearing on the BBC1 show Strictly Come Dancing at the time, told magistrates yesterday: 'The messages made me feel threatened because of the religious extremist views.'

In a reference to Miss Dando, who was gunned down on her doorstep in Fulham, West London in April 1999, he added: 'Obviously in the nature of my work on Crimewatch and my predecessor being murdered in her job, I have to take security very, very seriously.

'I had to be careful using public transport and the BBC had to increase security for me.'

Beckford, 24, who arrived at court yesterday wearing a black mini dress, met former Scotland Yard officer Mr Wilding in 2008.

She 'fell in love' with him when he interviewed her over an allegation of criminal damage, the court heard.

She then bombarded him with messages on Facebook, Twitter and his personal website.

But they turned sinister and in one she said she hoped he would break his leg on the celebrity dancing show.

She continued to send the messages even after she was arrested last November, Warley Magistrates' Court at Oldbury, West Midlands, heard.

Mr Wilding told the court the messages were 'very, very scary' and added: 'There were a number of emails of a vile and grotesque nature.'

The stress caused by the alleged harassment led to the breakdown of his engagement to Lauren Alcorn, a former girlfriend of England football captain Rio Ferdinand, he added.

Prosecutor Peter Love said: 'Miss Beckford had recently become a Muslim.

'Some of the messages were bizarre, some of them abusive, and some of them quasi-religious in referring to Allah.

'If you look at the number of messages and the content, any person would believe this amounted to harassment.

'She must have realised her messages were unwanted, however she persisted.'

Beckford, from Smethwick, West Midlands, admitted sending the messages but denied they amounted to harassment.

She said she wrote them while suffering from depression and under the influence of alcohol.

But magistrates took only 15 minutes to convict her. She will be sentenced at a later date.

Mr Wilding partnered Aliona Vilani on last year's Strictly Come Dancing, but was the third celebrity to be voted off.

Miss Dando's killer has never been caught.

Barry George, now 49, was convicted of the murder in 2001, but the case was later ruled unsafe and he was acquitted after a retrial in 2008.

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