Fan of BBC presenter Alex Jones handed restraining order

A homeless man who sent BBC presenter Alex Jones scores of love-struck tweets has been handed a restraining order barring him from any contact with the One Show star.

Shane Goldsmith, 44, hounded Jones for 17 months, even waiting outside the BBC headquarters in Portland Place, London, numerous times to tell her he loved her, a court heard.

He was handed a restraining order at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday banning him from having contact with the Welsh presenter, her partner Charlie Thomson or her parents Alun and Mary Jones.

He has also been barred from going to Broadcasting House or any other place Jones, 38, works or lives.

Goldsmith is said to have sent vulgar tweets to her and even invited her for a fry up in a pub in Leicester Square calling her a "darling lovely lady".

Senior District Judge Howard Riddle heard how he had 31 previous convictions for 62 offences.

By accepting the order, Goldsmith was formally cleared of a single charge of harassment between April 2014 to September 2015.

Nicola Flint, for the prosecution, said: "The most appropriate way to deal with this is by way of a restraining order being imposed. The defendant will accept that restraining order.

"We have discussed this with the complainant and she is happy with this course of action.

"On this basis the Crown offers no evidence."

The court heard that Goldsmith is receiving treatment at the Cygnet Hospital Stevenage and has accepted his contact with Jones was "unwanted".