Denise Welch on 'terrifying' five-month stalking 'hell' which changed her forever
21.04.2022 - 16:19
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Denise Welch has recalled the five-month stalking “hell” she faced which started when he set fire to her home.
The Loose Women panelist was addressing the issue on the ITV show today after her stalker was jailed for seven years earlier this month.
Toraq Wyngard, 53, was convicted last September of causing serious alarm or distress to the actress between September 18, 2020, and February 11 last year.
He was jailed for seven years and seven months, with the court hearing how Denise woke to her husband Lincoln Townley's "piercing scream" after a member of public alerted to the blaze in 2020.
Recalling the "utterly terrifying" ordeal, Denise said that she saw "huge sprawling flames outside the house" in September 2020, with Toraq arrested nearby carrying a kitchen knife in his rucksack.
Chester Crown Court heard how he plagued Denise, 63, by turning up at the £800,000 Cheshire home she shares with husband Lincoln Towney and leaving unwanted messages.
Talking to her fellow panelists on today’s show, she said it had been a “horrendous” time which had coincided with her father Vin becoming ill and dying of pneumonia in September at the age of 84.
Denise said: “It’s been a horrendous time for everybody.
“I have never been scared but its completely changed that ,even though I know this particular perpetrator is (locked up).
"That’s what it does to you."
"The thing about it is, people have much longer campaigns than I did, after the arrest he was on remand so we knew he was securely away.”
Panelists Charlene White, Nadia Sawalha and Jane Moore were discussing the rise in the number of calls to the police about stalking in the UK, 83%, and they expressed their shock at the fact one in five women are stalked each year in the UK, often