Matthew Wright stalker slapped with restraining order after threatening to snatch star’s baby
MATTHEW Wright's stalker has been slapped with a restraining order after threatening to snatch the star's baby.
Michelle Ranicar, 54, has been handed a restraining order at Wood Green Crown Court.
She became obsessed with the TV presenter after regularly appearing in the audience of his Channel 5 show The Wright Stuff.
She even fabricated a relationship with him, before she was banned from the programme.
Ranicar approached Matthew's wife Amelia when she was heavily pregnant to tell her she was "likely to have a stillbirth", before harassing her at home once the baby was born.
The court heard how on April 29 last year, the Wright's cleaner answered the door to Ranicar but immediately shut it when they realised it was the stalker.
Despite being told to go away, Ranicar shouted that she wanted to see the baby before trying to snap a photo through the letterbox.
Ms Foulkes said: "Amelia Wright was shaking and crying after the event and immediately called the police. She also called Mr Wright who wasn't home at the time. He described her as being upset and distressed on the phone."
The court heard how a mutual acquaintance tried to persuade Ranicar to leave the couple alone on the phone.
'EMOTIONALLY SCARING'
Rebecca Foulkes, prosecuting, said: "During the telephone call Miss Ranicar told her that she didn't have any children, that she wanted to see the Wrights' baby because she was 50, could not have children, and that it wasn't fair."
The court then heard from a psychiatric report that Ranicar lived with learning difficulties and autistic spectrum disorder.
Sentencing, Recorder John Benson told her: "You must understand that the cumulative effect on Mr and Mrs Wright was that they were fearful, they didn't feel safe, they were worried about their baby, and they were worried about what you might do.
"Over a long period of time you made their lives a misery."
Speaking out on their "emotionally scarring" nightmare on Lorraine earlier in the year, Matthew told how it had consumed the family.
He said: "It absolutely takes over your life, Amelia's understandably having a much harder time. Being subjected on your own in the house while heavily pregnant or with a little baby is a very, very different experience."
Amelia fought back tears as she recalled some of the more harrowing encounters with Ranicar - starting from when she was approached by the stalker at a charity auction while pregnant with daughter Cassady.
Most read in News
The couple admitted that they were too scared to leave the house, with Amelia adding: "You just live in fear and terror, you don't want to go out.
Read More on The Sun
Matthew and Amelia met in 2007, and the pair married in 2010 after Matthew decided to pop the question when Amelia almost died following a traumatic ectopic pregnancy.
They welcomed baby Cassady after eight years of failed IVF treatment, calling Amelia's pregnancy their "final roll of the dice" to have a child.
