LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 10: Anna Friel attends the NTA’s 2025 at The O2 Arena on September 10, 2 (Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
A stalker who bombarded TV star Anna Friel with unwanted gifts and even turned up unannounced at her home because he believed the actress was infatuated with him, has avoided jail. Phil Appleton, 71, who claims to have the paranoid condition erotomania that causes someone to have delusions about another person’s feelings towards him, admitted stalking the actor for almost three years.
Ms Friel told Reading Crown Court she was left feeling “threatened and shocked” by the obsessed pensioner who was handed a restraining order of 15 years and a community order of 24 months. The court heard how he sent Ms Friel numerous messages and visited her home address on several occasions during which he would “blow kisses” and “mouth ‘I love you’” at the house’s CCTV cameras. He also left “unwanted” gifts including empty packs of cigarettes, between January 1 2022 and December 11 2024.
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He asked his friends for advice on how to draft his messages to the star as he was “fearful of being accused of being a stalker and a weirdo” because of his history of mental health issues, Judge Alan Blake, told the hearing.
Appleton, of Windsor in Berkshire, previously pleaded guilty to stalking without serious alarm or distress and appeared for sentencing on Thursday.
The 49-year-old actor, who did not appear in person but whose victim impact statement was read out in court, said in her letter: “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 had made me feel very threatened and as though I have to look over my shoulder all the time.”
Jay Patel, prosecuting, told how Appleton first met Ms Friel while she was on a walk with her daughter in Windsor, Berkshire, where Appleton also lived at the time, and Ms Friel believed from the familiar way he spoke to her they must have worked together in the past.
She gave him her email address and began receiving regular messages from Mr Appleton from April 2022, Mr Patel said.
File photo dated 04/12/16 of Anna Friel who has said she would love to take on more comedy roles and (Image: PA)
“In those emails, he said that he loved Ms Friel and missed her, he invited her to lunch and dinner at his home, he was telling his friends that he was going to marry Ms Friel,” the prosecutor added.
“She decided not to respond in the hope that he would stop.”
But Ms Friel received more emails from Appleton in which his obsession for her seemed to escalate – saying he wanted to marry her, referring to her as the “perfect wife” and sending her details of a wedding he was apparently planning, the court heard.
Appleton first attended Ms Friel’s home address towards the end of 2023 dressed in a dinner jacket and inviting her to come to a ball with him.
In December 2024, he sent Ms Friel a message on Instagram saying “Je t’aime” (“I love you”) before turning up at her home once more.
“That evening, she was at home with her daughter when she saw someone looking through the lounge window,” Mr Patel said.
“Her daughter thought it was a neighbour and opened the door only to find Mr Appleton.
“He asked if her mum was here, she said she was not, and he handed her an empty pack of cigarettes which he said was for Ms Friel.”
Actress Anna Friel who plays Beth Jordache and Nicola Stephenson who plays Margaret O Sullivan in Tv (Image: -)
Ms Friel later checked her CCTV cameras and found Mr Appleton had been standing outside her home for several minutes before he was seen.
“He had been looking at the CCTV camera and was making facial expressions as though he was communicating with someone,” Mr Patel told the judge.
“He mouths the words ‘I love you’ to the camera and holds up a ring.”
Appleton returned to the house shortly afterwards on December 10 2024, when he once again left an empty packet of cigarettes and a wooden ring for Ms Friel and was captured on CCTV “making gestures, blowing kisses, and behaving as though he was having a conversation”, Mr Patel said.
The defendant, whom the court heard now lives with his elderly mother in Steeple Bumpstead, Essex, was arrested on December 11 and admitted to a mental health hospital the following day.
He was discharged on February 3 2025 and remanded in custody where he remained for six months until he was granted conditional bail in August, when he pleaded guilty to a stalking offence under Section 2A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
Reading Crown Court where Phil Appleton, 71, of Springfield Road in Windsor is accused of stalking a (Image: PA)
His defence lawyer, James Bloomer KC, told the court his client felt “unreserved apology and shame about his behaviour”, adding: “He wishes nothing more than to return to the law-abiding life he has lived all these years.”
As part of the restraining order, Appleton must not approach, follow, or contact Ms Friel or her daughter, directly or indirectly, and must stay away from the area surrounding Ms Friel’s home in Windsor.
His compliance to the community order requirements will also be monitored electronically for the next 12 months, the judge said.
Ms Friel rose to fame with her role as Beth Jordache in Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, famously delivering Britain’s first-ever on-screen lesbian kiss.
She achieved international renown in 2007 starring as Charlotte “Chuck” Charles in ABC comedy series Pushing Daisies.
In 2017, she won the international Emmy for best actress for her role as the title character in the ITV and Netflix mystery drama series Marcella.
Appleton describes himself as an actor, retired pilot, mental health coach and writer in posts on social media.
He also reposted a tweet which included pictures of Ms Friel. It said: “Simply stunning. Just beautiful as always.
BUCCANEER MEDIA FOR ITV MARCELLA SERIES 3 EPISODE 6 Pictured: ANNA FRIEL as Marcella Backland. T (Image: -)
“Hope you are keeping safe. Love these photos.”
In a separate post on X last year, he wrote: “I was 70 on August 7, 2024. I’m a pilot, father, actor, coach and writer.
“In my opinion, after 43 years, psychiatric diagnoses are the greatest barrier to recovery from mental conflicts.
“Gender differences are the root cause of mental health conditions, good and bad.’
He also appears to advertise his services as a mental health coach and a bilingual actor, who speaks both French and English, on a personal website.
A previous hearing was told Appleton had pursued a course of conduct “which had a substantial adverse effect” on Ms Friel’s everyday activities, including concern she might see the defendant at a health club they both attended.
The earlier hearing was also told that a psychiatrist had diagnosed Appleton with bipolar affective disorder and also believes he has a further diagnosis of erotomania.
Judge Alan Blake said the psychiatric report had concluded that: “Mr Appleton will require close monitoring by mental health professionals’, adding: “He has not confirmed that Mr Appleton’s fixation with the complainant in this case will necessarily resolve.”
James Bloomer KC, for the defence, previously said Appleton had already served around six months in custody in prison and a psychiatric hospital. Mr Bloomer said Appleton had his first “interaction with the criminal justice system” on turning 70, “despite his bipolar disorder”.