Cheryl Tweedy has reportedly been stalked by convicted killer Daniel Bannister for the second time. Despite a restraining order against him, Bannister turned up at the Buckinghamshire home she shares with her son Bear in December, three weeks after Liam’s funeral on 20 November.
Bannister – who spent 30 months in prison for manslaughter after a man died of his injuries following a savage attack by Bannister at a homeless hostel in 2012 – has been charged with breaching his restraining order. Court documents show that the stalker entered the county of Buckinghamshire on 10 December, and turned up at ‘an address where [he] knew or believed Cheryl Tweedy was present’, another separate breach. He also tried to contact the star either directly or indirectly.
The 49 year old was sent back to prison, ahead of his sentencing on 30 January, after he pleaded guilty to the three offences in December.
Last year, Bannister was given a four-month sentence and a three-year restraining order, banning him from contacting Cheryl, entering Buckinghamshire or visiting her home, after he was found to be ‘displaying fixated, obsessive, unwanted and repetitive behaviour’ towards the star, which he knew would cause her distress.
He was found guilty of manslaughter after Rajendra Patel died 15 days after he was assaulted by Bannister, who had punched and kicked him. Judge Nicholas Price said as he jailed him, ‘This is a tragic case. When you attacked Mr Patel you did not intend to cause serious bodily harm, let alone cause death.
'But the attack undoubtedly goes beyond one punch, it is a sustained attack or more or less 30 to 40 seconds. It is clear you are not a danger to the public, but it is inevitable that you must serve an immediate custodial sentence.’
Cheryl’s stalking nightmare comes after she had to increase her security during her West End run in 2:22 A Ghost Story in 2023. Her team were said to be on ‘red alert’ after the star was left ‘disgusting’ messages with flowers outside the Lyric Theatre in London.
In October, Cheryl also lost the father of her seven-year-old son, Payne, when he died after falling 45ft from a hotel balcony in Argentina. ‘As I try to navigate this earth shattering event, and work through my own grief at this indescribably painful time, I’d like to kindly remind everyone that we have lost a human being,’ she wrote in a statement. ‘Liam was not only a pop star and celebrity, he was a son, a brother, an uncle, a dear friend and a father to our seven year old son. A son that now has to face the reality of never seeing his father again.’
Shereen Low is a senior writer at Grazia UK.