TOWIE star Sam: 'I could have died'

TOWIE star Sam: 'I could have died'
TOWIE star Sam: 'I could have died' (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

The Only Way Is Essex star Sam Faiers says she feared for her life when she and her sister Billie were attacked by a gang of girls. Sam, 20, was admitted to hospital and underwent a brain scan before doctors gave her the all-clear and told her to rest. Billie, 21, had her 1,500-pound Mulberry handbag stolen, containing cash, house keys, mobile phone and photos, in the incident in a central London nightclub. In an interview with The Sun, Sam said: "I really thought I was going to die. They came at me like a herd of elephants. It's just a blur." Sam, who suffered black eyes, a split nose, bruises and scratches on her back, said she could do nothing but curl into a ball before passing out. Billie said she was surrounded by at least 10 girls on the dance floor at the Jet Black club before she noticed her leg was bleeding after she was hit by glass. She then told how the assault continued outside, saying: "They were punching me and hitting me with their high heels when I was on the ground. They pulled my hair and dragged me along the street." On the way home in a taxi, Sam said she received a call saying she'd get Billie's phone back if she went to a specified location. When she went to the spot, she said she was attacked by the same girls as before. Sam, who said she lost consciousness during the second assault, added: "If a kick had landed any differently I could be dead." Billie's spokesman, Luke Mills, said of the incidents, which occurred late on Saturday night and early on Sunday morning: "It was a massively unprovoked attack, which was clearly premeditated. We are assisting police with their inquiries."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.