Stalker with a teddy tried to collect Beckham’s little girl from school
Star tells of how he feared for his family’s safety
DAVID Beckham told yesterday how he feared for his family after a stalker tried to collect his daughter from school.
The former England football captain said he was concerned about what Sharon Bell would do next after she claimed to be 11-year- old Harper’s mother and accused his wife Victoria of stealing eggs from her body.
In a series of increasingly erratic letters, the 58-year- old stalker professed her love for the 47-year-old star and made a series of lurid claims that he had Aids and was having surgery to replace his brain cells with hers.
Bell turned up at Beckham’s homes in London and Oxfordshire, but things came to a head when she arrived at Harper’s school claiming to be her mother. She told staff: ‘A lot of people don’t know this but David’s sperm was fused with my eggs.’
Mrs Beckham was also at the school and watched in horror as police arrested the stalker who was clutching a teddy bear. In a statement read to Westminster magistrates, the 48year-old fashion designer said: ‘The school called me asking if Harper could be collected early. I went with security.
‘At the school the police attended and arrested the female. I did not speak to her but saw her as we were leaving. I had not seen her before or recognised her.
‘The incident made me feel upset and frightened.’
Mrs Beckham said the approach had left Harper ‘scared to go out’ and fearful about school trips, adding: ‘I tried to protect her and I am worried about her safety.’
The stalking ordeal took place between July and November last year. Beckham, who has four children, said: ‘I felt like the language in the letters was escalating and becoming more emotional and threatening to me and my family and this worried me. The letters were becoming increasingly threatening and obviously the female knew where I lived.
‘It made me worried about what she would do next.’
Bell turned up at the family’s £6million Cotswolds mansion on July 9 and visited their £31million Holland Park home on September 9, but was turned away by security.
Beckham said that he had never met her before: ‘She appeared with no warning, making the threat more targeted and intimidating. I felt helpless and angry that there was nothing I could do.’
The stalking started on July 5, when Bell wrote to him saying: ‘Victoria owes me some money, David, as she said she’s been robbing my bank account for years, which isn’t very nice. I would appreciate it if she wasn’t there on Friday.
‘I’ll try and come about 11 o’clock. I have got your address from a detective agency, I hope you don’t mind. I have feelings for you, David.’
Three months later, Bell wrote that she was planning to turn up ‘unarmed’ at his London home, saying: ‘I won’t have a go at you, I just want to talk to you. You owe me that, David.
‘PS I would like to be with you when you have brain surgery to give you a few new brain cells. I know what drug you should take to clear that little bit of Aids you’ve got.’
She added: ‘Your friend Tom Cruise has really upset me, David. He has done some terrible things to me.’
In a third letter in October last year Bell accused Beckham of drug rape.
She was charged with stalking but will not face a criminal trial because she has a mental disorder. Bell appeared in court by video link from a psychiatric hospital and was detained under the Mental Health Act.
An indefinite restraining order was also granted preventing her from contacting any of the Beckham family.
District judge Michael Snow said: ‘I’ve heard from David Beckham the consequences of this behaviour upon him.
‘Being a concerned father, being a concerned member of this family, he felt threats were being made toward him and his family by Miss Bell and that worried him.
‘He became later frightened for the safety of his family, being concerned as to what Miss Bell might do next.’
‘Emotional and threatening’