A former Scottish laird has been sentenced to two years in prison after attacking a fellow theatregoer who was singing loudly during a Queen musical.
Malcolm Potier, 75, seized 51-year-old Kirsty O’Donnell by the throat at the London Coliseum during a live performance of We Will Rock You.
Potier, a former multi-millionaire and qualified chartered surveyor, had previously been jailed in Australia after twice attempting to hire a hitman to murder the mother of his child.
The incident took place in June 2023 while Potier was seated beside his partner, theatre critic Lizzie Loveridge, editor of the website TheatreVibe.
As the show unfolded, featuring Queen guitarist Brian May, Miss O’Donnell began singing along to the band’s well-known songs.
But Miss Loveridge told Miss O’Donnell to ‘shut the f*** up’, which she replied with ‘bit rude’. Potier then ‘leapt into action’ and leaned over his chair to throttle Miss O’Donnell for a few seconds.
Jailing Potier at Southwark Crown Court yesterday, Judge Dafna Spiro said his ‘behaviour was extreme and horrific and so concerning’.
‘There is not a pattern of offending established, but there is a common thread of dominance, control and a lack of accountability.
Malcolm Potier, 75, was jailed for two years for throttling Kirsty O’Donnell, 51, on June 7, 2023
The former multi-millionaire and qualified chartered surveyor was previously jailed in Australia for trying twice to hire a hitman to kill the mother of his child
Potier was sitting next to his partner, theatre critic Lizzie Loveridge, who is the editor of website TheatreVibe, at the London Coliseum during a live performance of We Will Rock You when the incident occurred
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‘His attitude to the offence is so bizarre. It was a wholly disproportionate response to a trivial disagreement and took place in a crowded public theatre during a live performance.’
Potier was identified because Miss Loveridge left her business card at the theatre which a friend of Miss O’Donnell picked up.
Judge Spiro added: ‘She [Miss O’Donnell] developed an ongoing fear for having reported the offence and giving evidence. This caused her to reduce her public profile and take precautions she had never previously considered.
‘She decided to give evidence to send a clear message. She said, “Violence against women and girls affects too many people and I wanted to set an example to the young girls in my life that violence is not acceptable”.’
Potier from Sarratt, Hertfordshire, was found guilty of non-fatal strangulation.
He previously owned the Hebridean island of Gigha, which he bought for £5.4million in 1989 and later lost – along with his estimated £30million net worth – with his company’s collapse. He was never declared bankrupt but his assets were seized by a Swiss bank.
Amid a custody battle, Potier snatched his daughter, who was two at the time, in 1999 and entered Australia on false passports.
Then aged 50, he was arrested in Sydney the following year. While in a detention centre in 2002, he paid a fellow inmate £4,600 to kill his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend.
However, upon release, the would-be assassin fled to his native Italy with the money.
Potier was originally given a six-year sentence. He was given a second, 12-year sentence when he hatched a new plot to kill his former partner while in prison in Long Bay, New South Wales, in 2006.