I’m A Celebrity star Beverley Callard's grandfather murdered a man in hammer attack
The Coronation Street legend opened up about her family's dark past and said Pliny Brook was acting in “self-defence” when he killed another man and buried his body under a pile of coal back in 1970
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Beverley Callard's beloved granddad murdered a man in a horror hammer attack when she was just 13 years old.
The traumatic family period made the youngster throw herself “whole heartedly” into her “rebellious teenage years”.
Beverley, who is starring in this year's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! claims her grandfather Pliny Brook was acting in self-defence when he killed Paul Suchar back in 1970.
The man died after a strike to the head following a row over money - and her grandfather buried his body under a pile of coal.
He was 65 years old when he took the life of the man, confessing to the killing two weeks later.
Writing in her 2010 autobiography Unbroken, Beverley opens up about her heartache and how it changed her character as she tuned into a teen.
She wrote: “The two men must have started rowing and then Paul Suchar attacked Grandad and beat him really badly.
"His shin was totally kicked in and he thought he was going to be killed. Grandad hit back and was really fighting for his life.
“In the mill workshop there was a hammer lying on a bench and in desperation Grandad pick it up and hit Paul Suchar across the head with it.
"The younger man fell to the floor and when after a few seconds he didn’t come round, Granddad realised he’d killed him.”
He died in prison from septicaemia, just over a year after his conviction.
The publicity around the murder took its toll - and it made Bev shun school friends as she struggled to cope with what had happened.
Writing her 2010 book, she added: “I knew people were talking about my grandad, and some girls even avoided me.
"One girl told me I couldn’t go round to her house for tea any more as had been planned.
She then threw herself “whole heartedly” into her “rebellious teenage years”.
MirrorCeleb