Chris Packham, the BBC Springwatch presenter, has been granted increased protection after receiving several terrifying threats.
As a precaution, the 62-year-old environmentalist and broadcaster claimed that he has a bodyguard who sleeps in his hotel and accompany him while recording the wildlife series.
He explained: ‘A couple of times recently, before the Watches, we’ve had specific threats for me. So we’ve had a person who’s there and stays at the hotel and then goes with me to the place.’
Speaking further about the precise nature of the harmful communications, Chris stated that they were not death threats, but rather wished him and his family ‘hurt’, and that he had reported them to police.
Chris told The Mirror: ‘We have had several threats recently that are not death threats but they’re saying, “We’re going to harm you.” And they come, unbelievably, from emails. So we’ve got the person’s email address; obviously, I’ve reported them to the police.
‘I haven’t heard back from the police but they’ve acknowledged receipt of them. So we’ve had two in the last month, saying, “I’m going to harm you and harm your family.”‘
The increased security measures come more than a year after a terrible firebomb assault outside his home.
The environmentalist was alone at home when criminals set fire to a vehicle outside his property’s gates, later describing the resulting flames as ‘an inferno.’
‘Myself and the dogs went to bed, rather early for us just before midnight and then shortly after 12.30am there was an enormous explosion,’ Chris recalled of the ordeal at the time.
‘That was the first I knew of the incident. The car had clearly exploded. The bang was tremendous, the dogs flew off of the bed and started yelping and barking straight away.’
Chris has previously stated that he has received death threats in the mail, as well as human and animal waste, and other ‘offensive items’.
‘It’s a direct attack if you like rather than dead animals being left outside, which I’m afraid has become quite commonplace,’ he continued.
‘It’s an upscaling and my partner, who is relatively resolute was certainly perturbed.
‘My step-daughter, who has grown up in a theatre where I have been campaigning and even more used to the threats, is concerned about my welfare more than anything else.’
Meanwhile, in November, Chris was awarded’substantial’ damages for allegedly drafting a ‘death threat letter to himself.’
He successfully sued outdoor recreation and hunting website Fieldsports after an article said that he had ‘dishonestly claimed’ a threat had been’sent to him by an unnamed third party’.
In the same year, Chris won a libel action trial for having ‘enormous amounts of harmful material’ published about him.
He sued three guys for allegedly misleading the public into giving to a wildlife charity that rescues tigers from circuses.