Actress Anna Friel has informed a court docket she was left feeling ‘threatened and shocked’ by a person who stalked her for almost three years, as soon as even turning as much as her home in a dinner jacket and telling her to accompany him to a ball.
Phil Appleton, 71, was handed a restraining order of 15 years and a group order of 24 months on Thursday after he despatched Ms Friel quite a few messages and visited her residence deal with on a number of events throughout which he would ‘blow kisses’ and ‘mouth “I really like you”’ on the home’s CCTV cameras.
He additionally left ‘undesirable’ presents together with empty packs of cigarettes, between January 1 2022 and December 11 2024, a court docket heard.
He requested his mates for recommendation on learn how to draft his messages to the Marcella actor as he was ‘terrified of being accused of being a stalker and a weirdo’ due to his historical past of psychological well being points, Choose Alan Blake, sentencing at Studying Crown Court docket, informed the listening to.
The 49-year-old star, who didn’t seem in particular person however whose sufferer impression assertion was learn out in court docket in the course of the sentence listening to, stated in her letter: ‘As a girl within the performing business the place there have been quite a lot of instances of stalking, it nonetheless shocked me when it occurred to me.
‘This case had made me really feel very threatened and as if I’ve to look over my shoulder on a regular basis.’
‘It’s a enormous intrusion of our privateness and I really feel very unnerved by what he has carried out, notably when he was on the home.
‘I don’t need to really feel like a sufferer in my own residence and a neighbourhood I’ve lived in for years.’
Appleton first met Friel whereas she was on a stroll together with her daughter in Windsor, Berkshire, the place Appleton additionally lived on the time, and Friel believed from the acquainted means he spoke to her they should have labored collectively up to now, prosecutor Jay Patel informed the court docket.
She gave him her e-mail deal with and started receiving common messages from Mr Appleton from April 2022, Mr Patel stated.
‘In these emails, he stated that he liked Ms Friel and missed her, he invited her to lunch and dinner at his residence, he was telling his mates that he was going to marry Ms Friel,’ Patel added.
‘She determined to not reply within the hope that he would cease.’
However Friel obtained extra emails from Appleton by which his obsession for her appeared to escalate – saying he wished to marry her, referring to her because the ‘good spouse’ and sending her particulars of a marriage he was apparently planning, the court docket heard.
Appleton first attended Friel’s residence deal with in the direction of the top of 2023 wearing a dinner jacket and welcoming her to return to a ball with him.
In December 2024, he despatched Friel a message on Instagram saying ‘Je t’aime’ (‘I really like you’) earlier than turning up at her residence as soon as extra.
‘That night, she was at residence together with her daughter when she noticed somebody wanting by the lounge window,’ Patel stated.
‘Her daughter thought it was a neighbour and opened the door solely to search out Mr Appleton.
‘He requested if her mum was right here, she stated she was not, and he handed her an empty pack of cigarettes which he stated was for Ms Friel.’
Ms Friel later checked her CCTV cameras and located Mr Appleton had been standing outdoors her residence for a number of minutes earlier than he was seen.
‘He had been wanting on the CCTV digicam and was making facial expressions as if he was speaking with somebody,’ Patel informed the decide.
‘He mouths the phrases “I really like you” to the digicam and holds up a hoop.’
Appleton returned to the home shortly afterwards on December 10 2024, when he as soon as once more left an empty packet of cigarettes and a wood ring for Friel and was captured on CCTV ‘making gestures, blowing kisses, and behaving as if he was having a dialog’, Patel stated.
The defendant, whom the court docket heard now lives along with his aged mom in Steeple Bumpstead, Essex, was arrested on December 11 and admitted to a psychological well being hospital the next day.
He was discharged on February 3 2025 and remanded in custody the place he remained for six months till he was granted conditional bail in August, when he pleaded responsible to a stalking offence underneath Part 2A of the Safety from Harassment Act 1997.
His defence lawyer, James Bloomer KC, informed the court docket his shopper felt ‘unreserved apology and disgrace about his behaviour’, including: ‘He needs nothing greater than to return to the law-abiding life he has lived all these years.’
As a part of the restraining order, Appleton should not strategy, observe, or contact Friel or her daughter, straight or not directly, and should avoid the world surrounding Friel’s residence in Windsor.
His compliance to the group order necessities can even be monitored electronically for the subsequent 12 months, the decide stated.
Friel rose to fame together with her function as Beth Jordache in Channel 4 cleaning soap opera Brookside.
She achieved worldwide renown in 2007 starring as Charlotte ‘Chuck’ Charles in ABC comedy sequence Pushing Daisies.
In 2017, she received the worldwide Emmy for finest actress for her function because the title character within the ITV and Netflix thriller drama sequence Marcella.
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