A Britain’s Got Talent star has spoken about her harrowing and ongoing ordeal with a stalker who began contacting her when she was 13.
Connie Talbot, now 24, was just six years old when she was the ITV show’s runner-up in 2007 after going viral with her rendition of Judy Garland’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
She said that seven years later, she said her parents became concerned over ‘constant’ and ‘inappropriate’ messages sent to her official Facebook page for her singing career, which they managed due to her young age.
They were sent by a man in Germany who believed he was in a relationship with the then 13-year-old Connie and her parents reported them to the police.
‘But there is nothing that police can really do until they need to do something. He somehow found out my home address, he came from Germany to my house with pepper spray ropes, knives, walkie-talkies, he knocked on the door and my brother was there,’ Connie told the People Are Deep podcast.
‘He sent him on his way, we called the police, they couldn’t find him for days. They looked in every hotel, they couldn’t find where they were staying, it turned out he was camping in a park close to my house. He left walkie-talkies on the doorstep.’
After the incident, Connie said the man was arrested and he was sentenced to four years in prison in the UK. She said she believed he only served half his time.
She encountered him again when she was 18 on holiday in Gran Canaria with her boyfriend. Connie said she had just revealed her travel plans on ITV show Lorraine.
Recalling the moment she came face-to-face with her stalker, Connie said: ‘I just went to use the toilet in McDonald’s, I came back out and my boyfriend was hiding from me as a joke, he was going to jump out at me so I sat down at the table for two, I thought he was still in the toilet. Instead, the guy, who has been stalking me for years, sat in front.
‘I just froze, I couldn’t believe it at first, I was like, okay, this guy is a bit strange. When he said “My name is… do you remember me?” my heart sank and I grabbed my boyfriend’s hand and ran to the taxi rank.
‘I didn’t explain anything. I didn’t want conflict either. I just wanted to get out of the situation.’
Connie said she spent the rest of her holiday in her hotel room ‘waiting to go home.’
She added: ‘So there have been some terrifying experiences. I think there’s not enough help to prepare people for this.’
Now, Connie said she does not go anywhere by herself because she ‘feels safe that way.’
