DCI Banks star Stephen Tompkinson breaks his silence after being cleared of knocking man out in noise row
DCI Banks star Stephen Tompkinson has broken his silence after being cleared of knocking out a man during a road rage incident.
The actor, 57, was previously accused of seriously injuring Karl Poole.
2
The allegations that Tompkinson brought again came after Mr. Poole suffered a traumatic brain injury while outside the celebrity’s home in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside.
A court previously heard how mr. Poole and a pal were laughing and “lying on the pavement” during the early hours of the morning when Tompkinson approached them and the alleged incident happened.
However, after a two-year battle, the Ballykissangel star was cleared of all charges at Newcastle Crown Court last week.
Speaking for the first time since being acquired, he told ITV’s Lorraine this morning the whole process had been a “bit of a nightmare”.
He said: “I knew I had done nothing wrong [but] it had to be answered.”
Realizing the seriousness of Mr Poole’s injury, Tompkinson said it “definitely needed to be investigated” but could have been “done a lot sooner”.
Recalling that evening in May 2021, Tompkinson told the chat show host: “It was about half past five on a sunny morning at the end of May, a beautiful day and these two guys turned up, one in just his underpants and socks.
“His friend who was also very confused, incredibly unstable.
“They were the definition of drunk and disorderly – several other people on the street heard the commotion.
“They swung from a full-sized bottle of Jagermeister, which you don’t get next to the Sherry or Port.
“They were in a terrible state. Turns out the guy was four times over the drink drive limit so I called the police.
“I was worried this bottle was going to break in the area where there is a seven-year-old in the house playing with her skateboard and bike.
“They didn’t seem horrible in any way, they just carried on. We were all drunk now and then.”
Tompkinson said after he told the men he was going to call the police “they got a bit pissed off and turned on me”.
He said: “I stopped one of them from advancing with my open palm.
“Because of the condition he was in, he tumbled and fell about eight feet from me, hit the back of his head and suffered a very serious brain injury.
“Not a joking matter, it had to be investigated.
“[But] I thought to myself that this could have been investigated much earlier and settled there and then, rather than waiting two years.”
Speaking after the verdict last Thursday, he told reporters: “I just want to go home.”
Originally from Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside, became a household name after starring as Father Peter Clifford in 1996’s Ballykissangel.
In the same year, he appeared as Phil in the hit film Brassed Off.
Other TV series Tompkinson has been involved with include Drop The Dead Donkey, Wild At Heart, Minder, New Tricks, Grafters and Ted And Alice.
In 1994 he won the British Comedy Award for Best TV Actor for his performance in The Dead Donkey.
He was in DCI Banks for six years until the program was axed in 2016.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘752905198150451’);
fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);
DCI Banks star Stephen Tompkinson breaks his silence after being cleared of knocking man out in noise row
