Former Coronation Street actress Nicola Thorp shared her harrowing stalking experience on Friday’s edition of Good Morning Britain.
During the latest instalment, Nicola, 35, who previously played Nicola Rubinstein on the cobbles from 2017 to 2019, opened up about the scary ordeal ahead of a landmark ruling on police handling of stalking cases.
Nicola said: “You’d think it would be a happy day when the police called me and said: ‘We’ve arrested him, we’ve found him.’ I was, I was elated, I said: ‘Who is it? Who is this man?’ and they said: ‘We can’t tell you!'” To which horrified host, Kate Garraway, replied: “That is terrifying!”
She added: “So look, 90% of victims suffer psychological issues, how did it affect you and how bad did it get in terms of the terror?” reports .
Good Morning Britain spoke to former Coronation Street star, Nicola Thorp, on Friday’s show about her terrifying stalking hell (Image: ITV)
To which Nicola emotionally admitted: “So I think it was after the arrest because as I know sadly all too well when an arrest happens or when there’s a chance someone carrying out this behaviour they might not be able to do it anymore a victim could be at further risk, there could be an increased risk to the victim.
“It was very disturbing to me that I didn’t know what this man looked like, I didn’t know his name, I didn’t know where he lived. I begged the police for months and months to just tell me, give me some information.
“The most important thing for me was I wanted to know how tall he was, I wanted to know how much of a physical threat he could be and nothing for months until they eventually showed me a photograph, very fleetingly, of what he looked like.
Horrified host, Kate Garraway, replied: “That is terrifying!” (Image: ITV)
“I actually had to go to court to find out what his name was so that, I think psychologically, was difficult because he then became everyone that I met.”
Host, Adil Ray, then pointed out: “The first time you saw him, this really hammers it home for me, was at the day you were both in the court. You were behind him in the queue?”
Nicola explained how the court had an ‘airport security system’, recalling: “I was there just trying to focus on what was happening, I knew I was going to be reading out my victim impact statement. I was quite nervous and I just heard this man in front of me say the name and I froze, it was him, I was 30cm away from him.”
Nicola’s stalker used 25 different identities to target the actress over a terrifying two-year period. He was jailed for 30 months at East London’s Snaresbrook crown court last year.
If you have been affected by this story, advice and support can be found at the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. You can call the national stalking helpline on 0808 802 0300 or find more information .
Good Morning Britain continues on weekdays at 6am on both ITV and ITV X.