Chris Packham has a bodyguard while he films BBC’s Springwatch (Picture: PA)
BBC Springwatch presenter Chris Packham has been given extra security after receiving multiple chilling threats.
The environmentalist and broadcaster, 62, revealed he has a bodyguard who stays in his hotel and accompanies him while filming the wildlife programme as a precaution.
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 specific nature of the malicious messages, Chris said they weren’t death threats but wished him and his family ‘harm’ and added that he had reported them to the 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 presenter has been sent several multiple chilling threats (Picture: PinPep / SWNS)
The beefed-up security measures come more than a year after a horrific firebomb attack outside his home.
The conservationist was home alone when thugs torched a car by his property’s gates and later described the unfurling blaze as like ‘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.’
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It’s not the first time Chris has been subjected to threatening behaviour and previously explained that he has received death threats in the post, as well as human excrement and animal excrement, 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.’
A firebomb was exploded outside of his home in 2022 (Picture: BBC/Jo Charlesworth)
Meanwhile, last November, Chris was paid ‘substantial’ damages after being accused of writing a ‘death threat letter to himself.’
He successfully sued nature recreation and hunting website Fieldsports after an article of theirs said he had ‘dishonestly claimed’ a threat had been ‘sent to him by an anonymous third party’.
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The same year Chris was also victorious in another libel claim trial after having an ‘enormous amount of damaging material’ published about him.
He sued three men over allegations he misled the public into donating to a wildlife charity dedicated to rescuing tigers from circuses.
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He previously recieved excrement in the post.
