ACTOR Clive Mantle fought back tears as he described in court how he was left permanently disfigured after asking two drunken Scottish men in his hotel to be quiet.
Mr Mantle, 56, who is best known for appearing in TV's Casualty and Game of Thrones, lost a substantial part of his ear after he was woken up by Philip McGilvray, 33, and Alan French, 32, from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who were shouting in the corridor outside his room, their trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard yesterday.
He twice asked the pair to keep quiet and was on his way to the Quayside Travelodge reception to complain when they attacked him, the jury heard.
Mr Mantle said he fought back after feeling a surge of adrenaline when his ear was bitten off, but, remembering the case of farmer Tony Martin (who was jailed after he killed a burglar in his house), he tried to make his response proportionate.
Mr Mantle showed the jury his disfigured left ear at the request of the prosecution.
He explained that he been staying for six nights while working on a touring production at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle.
Despite asking for a quiet room, he heard revelry and laughter outside, but eventually it faded. But three or four minutes later there was "the most almighty noise" which sounded like it was right by his door, he said. Mr Mantle went to the door and the noise stopped.
He saw Mr French in front of him, adding: "I must have cast a fairly strange figure. I had a huge moustache, Jimmy Edwards-like, for the part I was playing.
"I said, 'Will you shut up, please, I'm trying to sleep,' and I indicated the rest of the corridor were all trying to sleep.
"He made no further noise and I thought, I have done the trick."
Mr Mantle went back to bed, but the noise started again with, he claimed, one of the men encouraging the other to "'look at the old man in pyjamas'". Mr Mantle said: "I can quite see I looked like a figure of fun. I just wanted them to be quiet and go away."
He then warned them he was going to call security, the court heard. But after searching his room, Mr Mantle could not find any hotel phone so had to walk to reception.
As he walked down the corridor, one of the accused stood up to block his path. Mr Mantle said he did not want to turn back to his room because he feared he might not be able to use his key card quickly.
Mr Mantle then put his hands out to force a gap through the pair, but his arms were caught and he could not free himself. He said 15 blows rained down on his body.
Mr French was pinning him down on the floor, he said, while Mr McGilvray was to his side.
"The next thing I was aware of was a pain in my left ear which triggered a massive response within me," he said. "I said, 'You are biting my f***ing ear.' The adrenaline it gave me enabled me to rip my right hand away.
"The only thing I could do is put my thumb in his eye socket to make him release."
Mr Martin added: "An image of Tony Martin, the guy who shot the intruders in his house, went through my mind."
Another guest came out of her room after Mr Mantle's ear was allegedly bitten off. Nurse Alice Klenk grabbed both defendants by their collars "to stop them having another go at Mr Mantle".
Mr Mantle added: "I looked down on the floor and there was my ear lying on the carpet. That brings things into focus."
He attended a local hospital, but the ear could not be reattached.
Mr McGilvray and Mr French, who have denied wounding with intent, were visiting the city with friends and had been drinking.
The case continues.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article