Liam Neeson has admitted to walking the streets with a cosh after a family member told him she’d been raped

Liam Neeson has admitted his first reaction to a loved one’s rape was to meet it with racist violence.

In a raw and sometimes disturbing interview with the Independent , the Cold Pursuit star confessed to wanting to kill any black man he could find after an unidentified female relative told him she’d been sexually violated.

The 66-year-old actor carried a cosh – a thick stick or bar that can be used as a weapon – around his neighbourhood for days, hoping for a black man to provoke him into violence.


Liam has admitted to having a racist and violent reaction to news of a relative’s rape

In a press junket for his upcoming film Cold Pursuit, Liam admitted he felt the “primal urge” for revenge when he returned from a trip abroad to be told of his loved one’s rape.

“She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way,” he told the newspaper, “but my immediate reaction was … did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person.

“I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody. I’m ashamed to say that, and I did it for maybe a week – hoping some ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him.”

With the benefit of hindsight, Liam now says his behaviour was “horrible, horrible”.


Liam says his reaction was “awful” ( 
Image:
PA)
“And I’ve never admitted that, and I’m saying it to a journalist. God forbid,” he went on.

“It’s awful. But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, ‘What the f**k are you doing’, you know?”


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A TRAILER FOR THE FILM COLD PURSUIT THAT LIAM NEESON STARS IN

Liam, who grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, told the paper that he now sees why revenge is wrong.

“I understand that need for revenge, but it just leads to more revenge, to more killing and more killing,” he added.