A former Scottish laird has been sentenced to two years in prison after throttling a woman during a live performance of We Will Rock You.
Malcolm Potier, 75, assaulted 51-year-old Kirsty O’Donnell at the London Coliseum on June 7, 2023, during the Queen-inspired musical.
The multimillionaire chartered surveyor had previously served jail time in Australia after twice attempting to hire a hitman to murder the mother of his child.
At the time of the theatre incident, Potier was seated beside his partner, theatre critic Lizzie Loveridge, editor of TheatreVibe.
As the production, featuring Queen guitarist Brian May, was underway, Miss O’Donnell began singing along to the music.
Miss Loveridge then told Miss O’Donnell to “shut the f**k up”, prompting the 51-year-old to respond that the remark was a “bit rude”.
Moments later, Potier “leapt into action”, leaning over his seat and throttling Miss O’Donnell for several seconds.
Sentencing him at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Dafna Spiro described Potier’s conduct as “extreme and horrific and so concerning”.
Malcolm Potier, 75, was jailed for two years for throttling Kirsty O’Donnell, 51, on June 7, 2023
‘There is not a pattern of offending established but there is a common thread of dominance, control and a lack of accountability.
‘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, Charlotte Goss, picked up.
The friend of Miss O’Donnell used the critic’s name to find Potier’s identity through social media and then the pair became aware of his criminal past.
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 wore a black suit and remained emotionless throughout the sentencing.
He was found guilty of one charge of non-fatal strangulation in July.
Potier previously owned the Hebridean island of Gigha, which he bought for £5.4million in 1989 and later lost – alongside his estimated £30million net worth -with his company’s collapse.
The surveyor had beaten off competition from Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger to purchase the island, which is off the Mull of Kintyre.
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.
He, then aged 50, was arrested in Sydney the next year.
While in a detention centre, he paid a fellow inmate £4,600 to kill his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend in 2002.
However, upon release, the would-be assassin fled to his native Italy with the money.
Potier’s six-year sentence was extended by 12 years when he hatched a new plot to kill his former partner while in prison in Long Bay, New South Wales in 2006.
