Overview

• On June 26, 2025, Nottingham Crown Court sentenced Vines to five years after he sent more than 20 letters from HMP Lowdham Grange to Emily Maitlis and her parents between May 2023 and February 2024, breaching his restraining order.
• Vines first met Maitlis at Cambridge University in 1990 and over the past three decades has amassed 13 convictions for 28 offences related to harassment or restraining order breaches.
• A restraining order imposed in September 2022 followed an eight-year jail term for repeated breaches but was violated again by the prison correspondence that underpinned the latest sentence.
• In a victim personal statement, Maitlis said she has lived with unwanted attention for more than 30 years and described feeling vulnerable and worried for her children and elderly mother.
• Vines refused to attend his sentencing hearing and represented himself at trial, where jurors unanimously convicted him of all counts in under an hour.