Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis has told of her anguish after her former university friend who harassed her for more than 20 years was jailed.
Ms Maitlis said she had been let down by the criminal justice system and Edward Vines’s unwanted attention had a devastating impact on her family, likening it to a ‘sort of chronic illness’.
Vines, 47, was jailed on Tuesday by a judge at Oxford Crown Court for 45 months after admitting two breaches of an indefinite restraining order banning him from contacting the BBC journalist.
Speaking to the BBC the presenter said she fears her stalker will never stop harassing her and described her frustrations with the legal system after Vines was able to write letters to her while serving a previous prison sentence for earlier breaches of the restraining order.

Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis has revealed how being stalked for more than 20 years by Edward Vines (right) affected her marriage with husband Mark Gwynne (left)

The BBC Newsnight presenter said she felt ‘let down’ that Edward Vines could send her letters from prison
Ms Maitlis described this as ‘bizarre beyond belief’, adding: ‘It was something that should never have got through, but it is extraordinary to think a stalker behind bars for corresponding can then carry on corresponding.’
The government apologised to Ms Maitlis after Vines was able to write to her from prison.
He had then written again while out on licence and under the supervision of probation services.
Oxford Crown Court heard one letter ended with Vines saying ‘I will not relent until you talk to me.’
Judge Peter Ross said the fact Vines was able to send letters to Ms Maitlis from inside Bullingdon Prison and from approved probation premises was ‘something of a scandal’ and demanded answers from the governor and probation service within 10 days.
When he was released, Vines ramped up his campaign and bombarded her with more creepy messages.
Ms Maitlis said that on an individual basis, authorities and police had been ‘really caring and helpful’ but there was a lack of co-ordination when dealing with victims.
‘You give a statement and you give an impact statement; you’ve got a prosecution and you’ve got a custodial sentence, and it’s been meted out – and then 12 months later it happens all over again.
‘By that time it’s a different policeman or a different investigator or people have changed jobs and somebody turns up at your house and says ‘Right so what’s all this about?’ or ‘Where did it all begin?’, and for somebody who’s been through this to have to relive that, it’s punishing and it’s humiliating.’

Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis said she had been let down by the criminal justice system
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live’s Emma Barnett Show, she said the stalking had been going on for two decades.
She said: ‘It just makes you jumpy – and that’s stressful and it’s tiring and it’s time-consuming.
‘It’s not that you think everyone is out to kill you. You recognise it as a paranoia. But it doesn’t make it any easier.
‘This has literally been going on for 20 years. It feels like sort of a chronic illness.
‘It’s not that I ever believe it will stop or he will stop, or the system will manage to prevent it properly.’
She added: ‘You turn into this person who shouts at your kids for the wrong thing.’
In a previous interview with Times Magazine she said: ‘There is a weariness to it. It feels never-ending. His life is ruined; I try to blank it. It’s a heaviness that sits on you, and when he comes back it’s dreadful. I get calls at all times of the day and night. It feels desperately sad. I can’t see how it will end.’
Describing Vines, who she first met as a student in their first year at Queen’s College, Cambridge, in 1989, she said: ‘Whatever treatment he’s had isn’t working as a cure and he is obviously also a victim in this.
‘He is unwell and has wasted half his life. Stalking is a weirdo glamorised term for what is essentially mental ill-health and so somewhere along the lines we have to change the mechanism.’


Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis has spoken out over how a 20-year campaign of harassment at the hands of a former university friend is destroying her life as he was jailed for nearly four years
Representing himself at Oxford Crown Court, Vines said: ‘As a defendant I never had full access to previous evidence given and I was not aware of the impact it was having on her life, this is news to me.
‘Through solicitors I have had and the police handling of things, I have never been able to solve this problem ‘I think the whole issue comes back to if she would talk to me just once, that hasn’t happened once since university. There were one or two calls but that’s it.
‘I am very sorry about it, I had no idea how she was feeling. Two of us are unhappy in this situation, I don’t know what to do about it. I think I have been through enough.
‘All this distress has been caused by not being able to talk to her once since all those years ago at Cambridge.’


Vines was jailed in 2016 for three years at Oxford Crown Court for breaching an order initially imposed after he was convicted in 2002 (pictured during that year) of harassing Ms Maitlis where he was jailed for four months
Vines first met Ms Maitlis in their first year at Cambridge University in 1989.
He believed Ms Maitlis had acted ‘scornfully’ towards him after he had told her he was in love with her and had a ‘sexual attraction’ to her while they were studying in 1990.
In 2002, he was convicted of harassment after Ms Maitlis contacted police about his erratic behaviour following the murder of her fellow broadcaster Jill Dando.
In 2009, after Vines continued trying to contact Maitlis, he was issued with the restraining order.
He breached the order by sending two letters to the journalist and emails and letters to her mother, Marion Maitlis, between May 10 and June 26 in 2015.
He was then jailed for three years in 2016 for breaching the order preventing him from contacting her.
The stalking got so bad Ms Maitlis revealed her two children had security to get on a bus to school and she required an escort to go shopping at a supermarket.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said yesterday: ‘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.
‘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.’