Thursday 24 November 2022 10:08 PM GB News reporter Ellie Costello reveals year of stalking hell at hands of ... trends now
A GB News presenter says she has been put through a year of hell after being stalked by a former Airline star who appeared on her show as a guest.
Ellie Costello was left fearing for her safety and suffering from 'panic attacks' after Leo Jones blitzed her with creepy messages.
Miss Costello bravely revealed her ordeal after Jones, who found fame on ITV reality show Airline before reinventing himself as a 'travel expert', was given a five-year restraining order today.
The 41-year-old was also given a suspended jail sentence at St Albans Magistrates' Court for his year-long campaign that left her in 'constant stress' and having 'sleepless nights'.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, the 29-year-old said she had never actually met the father-of-two in the flesh - having interviewed him over Zoom - before he started showing up at her filming locations.
On one occasion, he made it into her studio at 5am but thankfully she was not at work that day.
GB News presenter Ellie Costello on set. Miss Costello says she suffered a year of hell after being stalked by a former guest on her show
Leo Jones outside St Albans Magistrates' Court. The 42-year-old has been given a five-year restraining order forbidding him from contacting Miss Costello
Jones, a self-styled 'travel expert' appeared on GB News where he was interviewed by Miss Costello (pictured)
'I was crying in the witness room before I came into court today, it took everything in my body to do it but I wanted to court to hear me in person in my own words what this has done to me,' she said.
Jones shot to fame in Airline, which ran for eight years to 2006 and followed the lives of EasyJet workers through the highs and lows of airport dramas, making them small-time stars.
He latterly presented himself as a 'travel expert', analysing the industry under Covid-19 travel restrictions and was first interviewed by Miss Costello on GB News in August 2021.
Following the broadcast the pair exchanged messages thanking one another but nothing further.
He was interviewed by Miss Costello again in October that year, after which he suggested they should present a travel show together before later telling her: ‘I love seeing you in the morning X’
When she didn’t respond he followed up with ‘you take my breath away’ and then, over the next three days ‘You motivate me beyond words’, ‘I love seeing you’, and ‘You are my sunshine I love you’.
When Jones then asked: ‘How long do I have to wait to see you it is driving me insane,’ Miss Costello finally replied, telling him: ‘Please stop messaging me it is beyond
