TOYL

outside the studio for me, and I just tried to ignore him. I hoped he’d get the message.’
    ‘But he didn’t?’
    ‘No, he didn’t. Every day he’d be waiting outside the gates. Sometimes he’d tell me that he loved me, other times he’d shout abusive things about Stuart, whom I was dating. He couldn’t seem to distinguish fantasy from reality – he would always call Stuart Darren, his name in the show. He’d warn me that he was a bad influence; that he was involved with criminals. But that was just part of the programme.’
    ‘My God,’ Lizzy grimaced. ‘He sounds deranged.’
    ‘He was really into taking photographs, and he’d always have a camera with him. Even though I tried to walk past as fast as I could, every day he’d take pictures of me. The other cast members even started accompanying me on the way out, surrounding me – like bodyguards – but it didn’t deter him. Sometimes he’d post the photographs to my agent, but mostly I never saw what he’d taken.’
    ‘He was just storing them for his own benefit?’
    ‘I assume so. I certainly never saw any of the photos in a newspaper or magazine.’
    ‘What a freak,’ Lizzy said. ‘How long did this go on for?’
    ‘Just over a year.’
    ‘Bloody hell. That must have been a living nightmare.’
    ‘It was. And it got worse. Somehow he found out where I lived – I’m not sure but I think he must have followed me home one night. At first he just sent letters – love letters, I guess – telling me how much he loved me and valued our friendship. He started begging me to leave Stuart and go out with him instead. And then he began hanging around outside the flat, taking photos of me as I arrived or left. Sometimes he’d wait outside in the middle of the night. One night I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I looked out of the window he was there – it was three o’clock in the morning.’
    ‘How did you cope with it all?’
    ‘Okay at first,’ Emma replied. ‘But after a while I started getting really depressed. I was on anti-depressants for a time, and the show gave me a few weeks off at one point so that Stuart and I could go on holiday. If it hadn’t been for Stuart and Will’s support, I think I’d have lost it completely. Will was great actually – he used to travel up from London all the time to make sure I was okay.’
    ‘And what did the police do? I assume you told them about what was happening.’
    ‘I told them pretty much straight away. Well, as soon as he started turning up outside the flat. And because he’d done that kind of thing before, the police took it pretty seriously from the outset, although when they spoke to him initially it didn’t put him off because he believed it was some kind of plot by Stuart to keep me from leaving him.’
    ‘So then what?’
    ‘We got a restraining order. The courts barred him from contacting me or speaking to me. They also banned him from loitering around outside the studio, and outside my flat.’
    ‘And it worked?’
    ‘Thankfully, it did. I didn’t see him or hear from him at all after that. But by that time Stuart and I had both decided that we needed a total change of scenery, to try and put everything behind us. The whole thing had put our relationship under pressure, and I knew that I couldn’t bear to stay around Manchester. I even seriously considered quitting acting altogether because I knew that none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been on a television show. But Stuart convinced me that doing that would only let him win, so instead I decided I would try out for some stage shows – somewhere where I was more anonymous.’
    ‘And that’s why you came down to London?’
    ‘Yes. We needed a fresh start. Plus, there was always a chance that if we stayed up there I might run into Stephen on the street. I just wanted to be somewhere where I thought there was no chance of ever seeing him again. And I haven’t seen him since – it’s been four years.’
    ‘So what makes you think that he might have attacked Richard?’ Lizzy asked. ‘After all this time?’
    ‘It was something Mrs Henderson said. I think she spoke to the person who attacked Richard. And I’m pretty sure that person was Stephen Myers. Do you think I’m jumping to conclusions?’
    ‘No, I don’t.’ Lizzy sat back in the chair. ‘It sounds like it could be him. But do you think he could be capable of doing that? Was he ever violent to you before?’
    ‘No,’ Emma