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'Tarrant Willed Me To Win'
THREATS HAUNT TV MAJOR |
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Charles Ingram, 39, accused of cheating his way to the £1m jackpot on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, told a court his pet cat was shot at, his car was vandalised and he has been abused as he has been sitting in his own garden.
Ingram, who allegedly used an accomplice's coded coughs to pocket the £1m, said he felt he had been living under a "great cloud".
The extensive publicity that had accompanied the allegations against him, his wife and a college lecturer, had turned a difficult experience into a "dreadful" one, he told Southwark Crown Court.
"It has been extremely difficult living with this," he said. "We have had our cat shot at, we have had people driving past shouting 'cheat' as we were eating meals in the garden, I have had my car vandalised. It has been absolutely horrendous."
His lawyer Sonia Woodley QC then asked whether he had had to take any medication as a result.
"I am not on medication now, but certainly for about a year I was," he replied.
With his chin trembling, the Bosnian conflict veteran spent 15 seconds struggling to speak.
Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC asked if he was able to continue giving evidence. After a slight pause, he replied: "I don't like the sensitive bits but I'm happy to hang on."
He again denied he had cheated on the programe.
Ingram and his nursery nurse wife Diana, 38, of Easterton, Wiltshire, along with Tecwen Whittock, of Cardiff, who is head of business studies at Pontypridd College, South Wales, each deny one charge of "procuring a valuable security by deception" on September 10, 2001.
The case continues.