Anna Friel felt “threatened” and fearful during her three-year stalking ordeal and it made her feel as “though I have to look over my shoulder all the time”.
Anna Friel felt “threatened” and fearful during her three-year stalking ordeal.
The 49-year-old actress became the focus of unwanted attention from Phil Appleton, 71, who turned up at her home several times, mouthed ‘I love you’ to her security cameras and left gifts, including a ring.
According to The Sun, she said in a victim impact statement at his court hearing: “As a woman in the acting industry where there have been a lot of cases of stalking, it still shocked me when it happened to me.
“This case made me feel very threatened and as though I have to look over my shoulder all the time.”
Her ordeal began when the pair met while Friel was on a walk with her daughter and she presumed they had worked together in the past because of his familiar manner.
She gave him her email address and he began sending her regular messages, including ones where he told her he loved her.
Friel “decided not to respond in the hope that he would stop”, but he continued and expressed his wish to marry her.
His lawyer, James Bloomer KC, told the court his client felt “unreserved apology and shame” about what he had done.
He added: “He wishes nothing more than to return to the law-abiding life he has lived all these years.”
Appleton was given a 15-year restraining order and a two-year community order.
He has been banned from approaching, following or contacting Friel or her daughter and it was ruled that he must also stay away from the area near her home in Windsor.
Anna Friel’s stalking ordeal
