Saturday 26 November 2022 08:56 AM Ulrika Jonsson defends Kelsey Parker for dating man who was JAILED in 2013 for ... trends now

Ulrika Jonsson has defended Kelsey Parker after it emerged she's dating a man who was jailed in 2013 for killing a stranger with a single punch.

Mother-of-two Kelsey, 32, has found love with electrician Sean Boggans, 39, while mourning her husband, The Wanted star Tom, since losing him to cancer in March.

Now, presenter Ulrika, 55, has claimed the actress is 'deserving of a new life' while revealing she dating a criminal herself for a short while.

In her column for The Sun, she wrote: 'It is not for us to decide when she is permitted to start that life. Nor should we judge who that life should be with.

'I dated a criminal for a short while, not that long ago. Some people might have thought I was bonkers.

'But since my brief fling with the criminal, I do know other men have hurt and damaged me emotionally with far worse consequences than the criminal ever did.'

Kelsey's new boyfriend was jailed in 2013 for killing a stranger with a single punch while waiting for a taxi outside an east London boozer.

Sean is understood to be dating Kelsey some eight months after the death of her husband Tom.

But the electrician spent time behind bars after fatally punching Shaun McDermott, 44, during a heated argument over a taxi outside the Havering Oak pub in Romford. 

Boggans was waiting for his then-girlfriend to collect him when an argument broke out with the 44-year-old, who was knocked to the ground during the skirmish. CCTV footage later captured the electrician walking away from the scene. 

Mr McDermott was discovered by police laying on the pavement at about 1am with a brain haemorrhage. A postmortem found that he died as a result of head injuries, with Boggans handed a four-year sentence by a judge at the Old Bailey. 

Mr McDermott had been drinking with two of his sisters Maureen and Kathy at the nearby Wheatsheaf pub before heading home. 

Mrs Parker's representative has been contacted for comment by MailOnline. 

The mother-of-two has been mourning her husband, The Wanted star Tom, since losing him to cancer eight months ago and admitted recently that life on her own was 'tough'. 

It comes after MailOnline revealed the actress has sought solace with a new man.

Mrs Parker and Boggans, a father-of-two, are believed to have met when she took a break with friends in Lindos, Rhodes, in September. 

'It's very early days and no one knows what the future will bring, but for now, Kelsey is happy that someone else has come into her life,' said a source.

More recently she attended the wedding of a member of his family in Kent and the couple were clearly affectionate with one another. Boggans recently split from the mother of his children, but there was no crossover with Mrs Parker.

MailOnline understands he has a positive relationship with his former partner and has regular access to their kids.

In a recent interview on ITV's Loose Women, Mrs Parker spoke movingly of the void left in her life by the loss of Tom, once her daughter Aurelia Rose, three, and son Bodhi, two, were asleep.

'Evenings are so tough,' she said. 'Because the kids go to bed and then it's just me and that's the time you speak to your partner, you gossip and you talk and I don't have that any more.'

Mrs Parker posts frequently on social media about her late husband, and makes a conscious effort to keep his memory alive in the minds of her young children, with a special Father's Day post on Instagram in June, though she did admit the occasion 'will be hard'.

Earlier this month, she took part in a gruelling five-day trek across the Sahara Desert to raise funds for a breast cancer awareness charity.

The group set off on the extreme challenge on November 12 and trekked for more than

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