A drug driver has been convicted for threatening a journalist over a report on his case after calling him more than 160 times in the space of five hours.

Craig Deyager has admitted harassing Daniel Jae Webb after he covered his sentencing for drug driving.

Daniel, pictured, had run the story on his old website Wiltshire 999s based on a Wiltshire Police press release that stated Deyager had been disqualified from using the roads for 36 months.

But, just 25 minutes after it was published, 36-year-old Deyager began making phone calls to Daniel – ringing him more than 160 times in over a five-hour period in an attempt to have the story removed.

Deyager, who pleaded guilty last Tuesday to harassing Daniel before Swindon magistrates, is the second individual to be convicted for threatening Daniel in recent weeks.

Last month HTFP reported that, in an unrelated incident, Stacey Reader had pleaded guilty to sending threatening messages with intent to cause distress over a story on Daniel’s new Wiltshire Today site about her relative Connor Deeks.

As well as the phonecalls, Deyager also sent several text messages to Daniel despite being asked to stop a number of times.

In one of the messages, he threatened to publish Daniel’s address online so that “everybody you’ve p**sed off is going to have it”. t later transpired that Deyager did not have his address.

Gordon Hotson, defending, told the court his client had become aware of the story on social media by way of messages being sent to him about the fact he was the subject of a news item.

Mr Hotson said: “He tried to ring Mr Webb directly on the mobile telephone on his Facebook page. The defendant himself accepts he was excessive and acted over the top.”

District Judge Joanna Dickens asked if there was “anything about the story that was incorrect?” to which Mr Hotson replied: “Nothing was factually inaccurate as far as I can establish.

“The defendant himself, as you can see, is disabled [foot injury], he does suffer from anxiety, and at the time, several weeks before, his grandmother was cremated and he was in a very bad place.”

Speaking to HTFP, Daniel said: “Mr Deyager attempted to intimidate me in a bid to have a court story about his drug driving conviction removed from the Wiltshire Today website and social media accounts.

“As an experienced crime and court reporter, there are plenty of people who would wish me harm. Mr Deyager threatened to release my private address to the public and caused me, and my family, considerable distress.

“I want to thank Wiltshire Police for acting quickly, attending his address immediately and dealing with the situation before he carried out his threats. However, it did later transpire that Mr Deyager did not have my address.

“If you are successfully prosecuted for a crime, you may be featured in the news – and rightly so. The best way to avoid this is by living a crime-free life.

“Abusing the journalist who wrote about your conviction will only – as we have seen in this case – result in even more unwanted publicity.”

The case was adjourned until November for sentencing.