{"id":148366,"date":"2025-10-27T20:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/148366\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T20:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:20:07","slug":"man-accused-of-harassing-broadcaster-stephen-nolan-remanded-in-custody-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/148366\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of harassing broadcaster Stephen Nolan remanded in custody \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Belfast<\/a> man accused of harassing broadcaster Stephen Nolan<\/a> allegedly demanded to speak to him while carrying a hammer, a court heard on Monday.<\/p>\n

Robert Beck turned up at BBC<\/a> buildings in the city after repeatedly attempting to deliver threatening letters to the presenter, police claimed.<\/p>\n

The 62-year-old, of Bloomfield Crescent, was detained at the weekend less than 24 hours after being released on separate allegations of pestering loyalist activist Jamie Bryson.<\/p>\n

He appeared at Belfast Magistrates\u2019 Court to face new charges of possessing an offensive weapon in public, disorderly behaviour and harassment of Mr Nolan. <\/p>\n

An investigating detective said Mr Beck attended the BBC\u2019s Blackstaff House premises on Saturday morning demanding to speak to the broadcaster, eventually leaving when security staff informed him police had been called.<\/p>\n

Officers located him at a nearby hotel on Clarence Street West while he was writing a letter.<\/p>\n

He became abrasive towards police as they seized the letter, his notebook and other belongings, the court heard.<\/p>\n

A small claw hammer fell out of his leather jacket. He claimed it was for DIY purposes.<\/p>\n

At the scene Mr Beck indicated the correspondence was intended for Mr Nolan and asked officers: \u201cDo us a favour and deliver that over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The detective added: \u201cHe made repeated requests for police to deliver the letters, stating \u2018I\u2019m doing the country a service here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was claimed that he vowed to confront the presenter at every opportunity and to know where he frequented.<\/p>\n

Opposing bail, police claimed it was the fourth time in a week he had gone to the BBC seeking to speak to Mr Nolan and deliver \u201cletters of a concerning and threatening nature\u201d.<\/p>\n

District Judge Francis Rafferty was told the broadcaster has provided a statement expressing concern at what he believed to be an escalation in Mr Beck\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does not feel safe knowing that Mr Beck has threatened to approach him at any point,\u201d the detective said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoupled with the discovery of a hammer on his person during the latest incident he is deeply concerned about his safety and other persons encountering Mr Beck.\u201d<\/p>\n

During police interviews the defendant insisted he poses no threat to Mr Nolan, adding that the matter is now \u201cfinished\u201d. <\/p>\n

He had been granted bail last Friday on separate allegations of breaching a restraining order obtained by Mr Bryson.<\/p>\n

The charges involve claims he defied a ban on pestering the high-profile loyalist by attempting to get Mr Nolan to carry out an investigation into him.<\/p>\n

Defence counsel Turlough Madden stressed that Mr Beck made clear he poses no threat to Mr Nolan.<\/p>\n

The barrister also argued that the hammer was never brandished with any violent intent.<\/p>\n

Mr Beck was refused bail and remanded into custody until November 24th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Belfast man accused of harassing broadcaster Stephen Nolan allegedly demanded to speak to him while carrying a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[3412,663,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-148366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-belfast","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breakingnews","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115447989679750750","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}