Actress Anna Friel has told a court how a man who stalked her for nearly three years left her feeling “threatened and shocked”.
Phil Appleton, 71, was handed a restraining order of 15 years and a community order of 24 months on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to stalking Ms Friel.
Appleton sent the actress multiple messages and visited her home address several times, blowing kisses and mouthing “I love you” at the house’s CCTV cameras as well as leaving “unwanted” gifts like empty cigarette packets, between 1 January 2022 and 11 December 2024, Reading Crown Court heard.
Ms Friel, who did not attend the hearing, said in a victim statement read out in court: “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.”
Appleton initially met the 49-year-old actress, who first found fame in the soap opera Brookside and is best known for roles in comedy series Pushing Daisies and the mystery drama Marcella, while she was on a walk with her daughter in Windsor, Berkshire, where he also lived at the time.
Ms Friel believed she must have worked with Appleton due to the familiar way he spoke to her and gave him her email address, prosecutor Jay Patel said. Appleton started sending her regular messages in April 2022.
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“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,” Mr Patel said.
“She decided not to respond in the hope that he would stop.”
But the messages did not stop, and Appleton’s obsession with Ms Friel appeared to escalate, with the 71-year-old telling the actress that he wanted to marry her and sending her details of a wedding he was apparently planning, the court heard.
He first went to her home address towards the end of 2023 while he was dressed in a dinner jacket to invite Ms Friel to come to a ball with him.
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In December 2024, Appleton went to Ms Friel’s home again and was caught looking through her lounge window, Mr Patel said. The prosecutor added that Appleton handed Ms Friel’s daughter an empty pack of cigarettes to give to her mother.
CCTV footage revealed Appleton had been standing outside Ms Friel’s home for several minutes before he was spotted, making “facial expressions as though he was communicating with someone” at the camera, mouthing the words “I love you” and holding up a ring, according to Mr Patel.
On 10 December 2024, Appleton returned to Ms Friel’s home and once again left an empty packet of cigarettes and a wooden ring, as well as mouthing something and blowing kisses at the CCTV camera.
He was arrested the next day and later admitted to a mental health hospital, from where he was discharged in February 2025. He was remanded in custody for six months until he was granted conditional bail in August, when he pleaded guilty to a stalking offence.
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Appleton felt “unreserved apology and shame about his behaviour”, his defence lawyer told the court, adding that the defendant “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.
Judge Alan Blake said Appleton’s compliance with the community order requirements will also be monitored electronically for the next 12 months.
