Bear: My party fear
BEAR Grylls has climbed Mount Everest, eaten rotting camel meat and live scorpions – and was almost paralysed in a parachuting accident.
But the telly adventurer has claimed there is only one ordeal that truly terrifies him – attending cocktail parties.
The survival expert, 44, who trekked through Alaska with President Obama and has guided numerous stars through the wilderness on his Running Wild series, said he “freaks out” at formal events.
Bear said: “I get really nervous at cocktail parties and similar gatherings because it always seems there’s no escape route.”
The father-of-three added: “That slightly claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in the corner of a crowded room can be quite overwhelming and intimidating. Give me the great outdoors any day.”
A BABY torturer has been attacked in one of Britain’s toughest jails – with a sock filled with tuna cans.
Tony Smith, who abused his weeks-old son so badly his legs had to be amputated, was taken hostage and beaten almost to death.
Smith was left with a fractured eye socket, broken ribs and a broken jaw after being pounced on by two inmates at Swaleside Prison – known as “Stabside” – on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
They tied him to a chair and assaulted him with the homemade cosh as well as metal bars. A jail insider said: “The inmates were wrongly housed in the vulnerable prisoner B wing.
“They came into contact with Smith and held him hostage in his own cell for four hours.
“During that time they tied him to a chair and attacked him with a sock filled with tuna cans and metal bars. They also stamped all over him.
“Prison guards managed to get them off in the nick of time – he’s lucky he didn’t die. The men are now in segregation pending an investigation as to how this happened.”
Heroin addict Smith and his partner Jody Simpson were jailed in February for 10 years for abusing their baby and torturing him.
Their son, also called Tony, was 41 days old when he was taken to hospital fighting for his life with several fractures and septicaemia.
He survived but both his legs had to be amputated and he faces a lifetime of disability.
His parents admitted they did not take him to the doctors when he became ill for nine hours because they were waiting for a plumber to come and mend their broken boiler.
Baby Tony had also suffered eight fractures, including leg injuries consistent with being swung around by his ankles.
He has since been adopted by a new family.
Earlier this year a former guard at HMP Swaleside said the jail was known as “stab city” due to the number of attacks there.
A Prison Service spokesman said: “Staff resolved an incident involving three prisoners at HMP Swaleside on August 7. The incident has been referred to the police so it would be inappropriate to comment further.”