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 by people they know.
On September 19, 2020, Wyngard set fire to a skip on the driveway of Denise’s house, which later spread to the garage.
When police arrived, they found the Manchester man near the address carrying a knife in his backpack.
Denise said: “We were watching a movie, next thing I heard was a piercing scream.
“I ran downstairs, the boys were outside and we had a skip full of flammable stuff., it was ablaze.”
Denise said they wouldn’t have known there was a fire had a woman who knew them through her kids’ school not stopped and banged on their door to raise the alarm.
She added: “When we saw the fire, we weren’t even thinking what happened, I had assumed kids had flicked a cigarette into the garden or something.
“The next thing I see Lincoln looking at his phone, we had cameras installed so he was looking at them and then he went running into the churchyard opposite our house, he’d seen the offender setting fire to the skip and then walking away into the churchyard.”
Denise said police arrested Wyngard but he was soon released on bail and she was “terrified”.
She said: “We kept thinking he was out there, he had knives on him, Lincoln was getting up with me every morning at 5am when I had filming.”
Former Coronation Street star Denise said he then struck again five months later.
On February 10 2021, while Wyngard was released under investigation, Denise and her husband discovered the words “Witch” and “Pimp” along with an upside-down cross had been scrawled on their front gate in blue marker pen, the court was told.
CCTV showed Wyngard writing the graffiti and he was captured on CCTV at a nearby shop buying the pen.
Officers also found a number of cameras, both normal and covert, and binoculars during a search of his home address.
She added: “Five months later we came back from work and on our gate was a marker ‘pimp’ and ‘witch’.
“Lincoln went straight to the CCTV and low and behold, it was him.
“This is person who knows the quality of the camera that caught him first time, and got him arrested, but he came back.”
Wyngard admitted a charge of stalking her and causing serious alarm or distress between September 18, 2020, and February 1, 2021 as well as the charges of possession of a knife, criminal damage, and arson.
His sentencing was delayed after he later attempted to change his pleas, claiming he had been “pressured” into admitting the offences, the court heard.
His application to change his pleas was rejected but Louise Cowen, defending, said Wyngard maintained he was not guilty.
She said he suffered from bipolar affective disorder and had been failing to take his medication.
At the time, Judge Michael Leeming apologised to Ms Welch and her husband as they had attended court expecting to see Wyngard sentenced.
Denise and her Loose Women colleagues agreed this was another way for the stalker to exert “control” over her and her husband.
Wyngard failed in his application to overturn his guilty plea and was sentenced at the beginning of April.
In happier news, Denise celebrated ten years of sobriety this week.
She showed off a before and after picture of herself and said she was "happier and healthier" after 10 years of being sober.
The 63-year-old said there were a few differences: "Got a few more lines and wrinkles but it’s in the eyes. They have it. 10 yrs ago today I took my last alcoholic drink. Not a sherry trifle since and it’s been the best decision I ever made.
"It changed my life and the lives of everyone I love and who loves me."
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