As an executive director of one of the biggest TV shows in the UK, Louise Berridge appeared to be living the kind of glamorous life most people can only dream of.

But behind the glittering ceremonies and countless awards, Ms Berridge had to deal with an unwanted side-effect of her high-profile job — she was the victim of a stalker.

For three years, she was subjected to hundreds of offensive and threatening emails and telephone calls from the offender to the point where she no longer felt safe in her own home.

Speaking in front of an audience of criminal justice professionals at Elbow Beach Hotel yesterday, Ms Berridge explained how she only came to terms with her suffering thanks to a new scheme to provide extra support to victims of crime in the UK.

She said that after talking to players within the legal system in Bermuda, she understood similar concepts are in place here — ensuring victims are given as much chance as possible to cope with their ordeals.

Ms Berridge, who was in charge of the popular BBC soap EastEnders from around 2002 until 2004, said her stalker — who used her own name as a pseudonym — insulted her, sent emails offering her resignation to her bosses and emailed UK newspapers pretending to confess to drug-taking.

She said her experiences with the stalker paled into insignificance compared with rape or child abuse victims whose stories have been told during the two-day criminal justice conference at the hotel.

She told the audience: "I was a victim, only a minor one in the scale of things. I was only a victim of harassment.

"I had a stalker. He wasn't even a very abusive one — he never touched me. He would send abusive emails and make nasty telephone calls.

"It was funny really. It was great fun coming home from an awards ceremony to an inbox of messages from myself telling me how ugly I looked on TV, how he was going to get me no matter what I did."

She said she only began to feel better on the opening day of her court case, when she was able to laugh with a Crown Prosecution Service solicitor about the "sheer ghastliness of the defendant". The defendant changed his plea to guilty on the first day of the trial.

Ms Berridge said the "human touch" from the prosecutor, which was encouraged as part of the No Witness, No Justice scheme, had made a real difference.

"For the first time in three years, I began to feel myself again," she said. "The moment she gave me the right to be a victim was the moment I stopped being one."

Referring to her conversations with lawyers in Bermuda, she added: "I know this is not a new concept here because I can see there are human touches here. This humanity does not cost anything."