A West End actor has been blinded in his right eye after an armed attacker violently smashed through his van window with a metal object in what was thought to be an attempted robbery.
On 18 December, Mike Holoway, 63, was sitting at a set of traffic lights in Beckton, East London, when an attacker broke through the driver’s side window, with Holoway’s head and face taking the force of the blow.
The actor, who starred in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat for four years, has revealed that he needed stitches in his eyeball and will undergo three operations over nine months to save his eyesight.
Speaking toThe Sun, he said: “It was 15 seconds of hell. If it wasn’t for the witness I don’t know if I would still be here. I was stationary and I heard banging on my door and pulling of the handle. He began screaming and shouting at me.”
The actor said he believed the attacker was holding a metal, weighted object that could have been a knuckle duster.
He said: “This man smashed his fist through the driver’s side window. Straight into my face, it knocked me across to the passenger seat.
“I had to have metallic fragments pulled out of my face.
“You think you know how you can react in these situations. But I saw stars. I didn’t know what the hell was going on.
“By the time I picked myself up and got my momentum, I reached for my phone to take a picture of the reg plate, but he’d gone. He smashed straight through the window into my face.”
Holoway recounted that he was guided to safety by a witness named Bobby, who made sure he got to a hospital.
The actor was taken to A&E in Essex before he was moved to Moorfields Eye Hospital in central London for surgery after examinations showed extensive damage to his eye.
Speaking about his recovery, he said: “I’ve got to have a lens replacement. I’ve got to get a cornea donor. I’ve got to have a cornea replacement.
“My eye at the moment is being held together by six stitches. I’m on painkillers all day, every day for the first five weeks of it happening. It’s a bit of a blur. My wife Emma has been incredible.”
“I have to say Moorfields, the team there, the specialists there, the nurses have been unbelievable, absolutely staggering. So they’ve saved my eye.”
The actor’s wife, Emma, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help with his recovery, which has raised more than £5,000.
On the page, Emma wrote: “Whilst sitting in traffic on his way to work, a transit van which had been spotted driving erratically minutes before, pulled alongside Mike’s van. The attacker got out and attempted to open Mike’s driver door, screaming and shouting, but it was locked. He then proceeded to smash through the window with a metal object, throwing Mike across to the passenger seat, his head and face taking the full force of the blow.”
“The following day Mike had surgery to save his eye which thankfully was successful. He now has six [stitches] holding the eye together, keeping it stable. There will be a further three operations and physio over the next nine months and it is only after this that we will find out how much sight he will regain.”
She continued: “We are both self employed and with Mike unable to work, drum, perform, drive - he has had to cancel gigs, turndown future bookings and castings which means we are facing a very uncertain year ahead financially.”
The Metropolitan Police has reportedly made no arrests.
