Stephen Tompkinson told a court today (Tuesday May 9) that he had no intention to hurt anyone during a confrontation with two drunken men outside his home early on a Sunday morning.

The actor denied punching one of the men who he said was coming towards him on the pavement outside his driveway during the verbal exchange after he told the pair he was phoning the police.

Confronted by what he said appeared to be the drunker of the duo, who was wearing only boxer shorts and socks having just come off the beach, Mr Tompkinson said he was holding his phone in his left hand, waiting to be connected to the police.

He said he thrust his right hand out in an overarm action to prevent the man coming any closer.

Read more: Stephen Tompkinson accused of causing 'traumatic brain injury' to man

The actor said he felt his open palm make connection with the face of the oncoming man, who fell backwards to the ground.

But he said the contact was not sufficient to have made a sober man fall to the ground.

He denied the allegation that he had punched the man, Karl Poole, who, it later emerged suffered traumatic brain injury as his head hit the ground in the unbroken fall.

Mr Tompkinson said a neighbour who observed the incident from her home 30-metres away in a residential street in Whitley Bay, must have mistaken him holding his phone out to the two men to show them he was ringing for the police, as, in her view, a punch.

He said he could not have punched the man as he was holding the phone in that hand, and, asked about a bruise found on examination later, he explained he received it in an accident erecting a child-size gym bag for his “little-un” in his garden.

The 57-year-old Stockton-born actor said he had never punched anyone in his life, but conceded he was an “expert” in staged non-contact fighting for dramatic purposes.

Under cross-examination by prosecution counsel, Michael Bunch, he agreed he was “exasperated” at the drunken behaviour of the two men who he said could barely stand outside his home at 5.30am on Sunday May 30, 2021.

But he denied having “any degree of anger” as he went out to urge the pair to move away from his home, as they may disturb his partner and their child.

Read more: Actor Stephen Tompkinson going on trial accused of inflicting GBH

“It was more the disappointment.

“They weren’t really registering any degree of normality to anything.

“They were so far gone it was difficult to communicate with them.”

Mr Tompkinson said he rang the police in the hope they would be able to safely move the pair on their way home.

“They didn’t look capable of getting home under their own steam.

“I wanted to get them assistance and get them away. It wasn’t a pleasant site.”

Asked about Mr Poole’s fall, Mr Tompkinson said: “He recoiled back, and went back of his own volition.

“There was no left punch on my part, nor were there any corresponding marks on the right-hand side of Karl’s face.

“There was no evidence of any punch at all, because one didn’t take place.”

He said the reason he did not phone for an ambulance himself as Mr Poole lay unconscious, while his friend, Andrew Hall was trying to rouse him, was that he heard him snoring and believed he was just in a “very deep sleep”, due to his level of intoxication.

Asked directly by Mr Bunch: “Is it your evidence what you did had absolutely nothing to do with Karl Poole ending on the floor?”

In response Mr Tompkinson said: “I’m not responsible for Karl Poole’s skull fracture.”

Read next:

* Stephen Tompkinson case: Man left unconscious outside Whitley Bay home

* Actor Stephen Tompkinson denies gbh attack outside Whitley Bay home

* Stephen Tompkinson’s neighbour tells court she saw him slap and punch drunk man

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He said it was due to Mr Poole’s “instability, due to the amount he had to drink.”

Mr Tompkinson, 57, of Whitley Bay, denies inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The trial, at Newcastle Crown Court, continues.