TV star: I helped save victim disembowelled with a Samurai sword
RIVER CITY star Iain Robertson has told how he came to the aid of man allegedly slashed by an attacker wielding a Samurai sword.
He revealed he called 999 while the victim was bleeding and holding ‘his intestines in his hand’.
Mr Robertson, 36 – who plays Stevie O’Hara in the BBC soap – was giving evidence to a jury at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday after witnessing a ‘ruckus’ near his home in the city’s Govan area.
Peter McDermott, 35, is charged with the attempted murder of James Bow on April 8 this year.
Mr Robertson – who won a Scottish Bafta for his breakthrough role in 1996’s Small Faces, about Glasgow gangs in the Sixties – told the court he was walking to his local shop that night when he became aware of a ‘bit of nonsense’ and a ‘ruckus’ between two men.
He said: ‘It looked like some idiots having a go at each other.’
He added that he noticed what he described as a ‘Samurai sword’.
Jurors also heard that ‘a third party’ arrived on the scene and was apparently topless.
The older of the men was said to have been backed up against a fence.
Mr Robertson said: ‘It certainly looked like the other two were having the upper hand.’
The actor told the court that he was initially not aware what had happened to the man.
He said: ‘I remember seeing the sword. I think I was aware that there had been a cutting gesture.
‘When I saw the older man later, I
‘Holding intestines in my hand’
was aware there was more to meet the eye.’
Mr Robertson told jurors that he and a neighbour spotted the man going down the street.
He said: ‘We thought he had been hurt, so we went towards him.
‘He said, “I am holding my intestines in my hand here”.
‘His intestines were in his hand. I went to my flat to get a towel. We sat him down because he was about to faint or collapse.
‘There was a lot of adrenaline at the time.’
The actor said he called 999 before ‘lots’ of police and an ambulance turned up. He also said he remembered shouts of ‘you are getting killed’. He added that he would not be able to recognise the men.
Mr Robertson told the court the incident was ‘wholly unexpected’. He said: ‘It looked like the man [was] being attacked, so I took my leave as I feared for my safety.
‘There was a Samurai sword in a street in Govan and I was scared.’
McDermott gave evidence yesterday and admitted that he had a weapon but claimed he had only been trying to help his brother.
The court heard claims that his sibling, William, was being attacked in the street and that he had grabbed an ‘ornamental’ sword.
McDermott said anything that had occurred was ‘100 per cent’ to ‘protect’ William.
Prosecutor Kath Harper said he had gone out armed ‘in a rage’.
McDermott replied: ‘No. I was not in a rage. I was in fear and dread.’
The trial, before Lord Summers, continues.