Government apologises to Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis after stalker contacted her from prison

The Government has apologised "unreservedly" to BBC journalist Emily Maitlis after her stalker of 25 years was able to contact her from prison.

Edward Vines, 47, who has refused to give up his pursuit of Maitlis since they attended Cambridge University together in 1989, was sentenced to a further 45 months in prison on Tuesday for breaching two counts of a restraining order.

Vines was previously jailed for three years in September 2016 after breaching a previous restraining order but was able to send her letters from prison in "something of a scandal", Oxford crown court heard.

Maitlis said she was left feeling "scared and let down" after Vines was able to contact her from inside jail.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “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."

Vines was first hit with a restraining order not to contact Maitlis, 47, in 2002 after she became alarmed following the murder of fellow TV presenter Jill Dando in 1999.

Sentencing him on Tuesday, Judge Peter Ross 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.”

He said the fact that Vines had been able to send a letter to her from Bullingdon prison in Oxfordshire and demanded an explanation from the governor.

The judge accepted Vines had mental health issues but that doctors had said they had not triggered the harassment.

In a victim impact report read to the court, said: “When I heard that Edward Vines had breached his restraining order I felt scared and let down — let down because it meant that even within the prison system the perpetrator was able to reach me.

“It has affected my relationship with my husband, who is frustrated that we cannot get to the bottom of this problem, even though we have been tackling it through the CPS and courts for over 20 years, and it has scared my children who thought the threat had gone away — albeit while he was temporarily behind bars.

“It has affected my ability to work — I am constantly thinking of where I am being sent and whether he will be attempting to track me down.”