Judy’s terror! Richard’s rant about the ‘misfit weirdo’ stalker hounding his wife
Why Richard Madeley wishes the ‘misfit weirdo’ would leave himself and his wife alone… ‘Richard just started having a fit in the middle of the street, shouting at me’
The thought of a stalker is a terrifying one for any woman. So it’s little wonder that Richard Madeley has despaired over the man who’s been seemingly obsessed with himself and his wife for the past three years...
Last summer, on a book tour of the Lake District promoting Richard’s latest novel, The Night Book, the exasperated star noticed the man following the couple for four days.
It all came to a head in Cockermouth, Cumbria, when Judy Finnigan, 68, refused to leave the car, and her hubby confronted the man. According to a bystander, Richard then ‘ had a screaming match with him in the middle of the street. Judy looked terrified and refused to get out of the car’.
When best tracked down the alleged stalker – a lone, rogue photographer called George Bamby – he told us, ‘I know Richard probably hates me, but I am just taking pictures. He’s even said I stalk Judy and that I had an interest in her, but I can honestly say I haven’t got any weirdo interest in his wife.
‘I told him who I was when we were in Cumbria, and he started having a fit in the middle of the street, pointing and shouting at me.’
On another occasion, Richard chased the man after spotting him outside the couple’s Cornwall retreat. Furious Richard took to Twitter, writing, ‘ So who are the two peeping Toms who just flew a drone over my garden near Looe? Chased them down to a white van.’
Hours later, he tweeted that the ‘peeping Toms’ had handed themselves into the police with ‘ babbled excuses and apologies’, which were ‘total pap bull’. He thanked Devon and Cornwall Police for their help with the ‘creeps’.
Taking to Twitter again recently, and referring to George, Richard wrote, ‘He’s an odd person, isn’t he? Weird to be stalked by such a misfit.’
Adding later, ‘Oddball is as oddball does, certainly weird to be stalked by a weirdo.’
But the photographer says he is simply doing his job.
‘I know Chloe [Richard and Judy’s 29-year-old daughter] has been on the phone to other photographers accusing me of stalking her mum,’ he confessed. ‘And Richard has started getting really abusive with me now, swearing at me and tweeting insults. I won’t stop following them, though – why should I?’
Hmm. We can see why Judy may well have had enough. Let’s hope it all ends peacefully.