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'HORRENDOUS MOMENT'
SAS: Who Dares Wins hardman says the ‘scariest thing that ever happened’ was not war — but when he was MAULED by a chimp
Ollie Ollerton, 48, says the life-changing incident left him with gangrene
AS an elite soldier in the Special Boat Service he carried out night raids on ships laden with drugs and armed criminals. He had AK-47 machine guns aimed at his face.
But for Ollie Ollerton — one of the four instructors on Channel 4’s hit TV show SAS: Who Dares Wins — the scariest moment of his life was when he was mauled by a chimpanzee . . . when he was ten.
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The bizarre incident happened at a circus in his home town of Burton-on-Trent. One boiling summer afternoon Ollie and a pal spotted the tents and asked if they could see the animals.
He was fascinated by a baby chimp and recalls: “He had big brown eyes and looked so innocent and vulnerable.” Then the chimp’s 50kg mum screeched over and leapt on top of Ollie. He says: “She pinned me to the floor.
“She swung her arms above her head and brought them down on my chest and face, like a drummer in a rock band.
“She buried her face in mine, gnashed her teeth and swivelled her neck from side to side, like a dog with a rag doll. When I opened my eyes and looked through my fingers, I saw those teeth dripping with blood.
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“At that moment — the most horrendous moment of my life — pure, blind panic was replaced by the urge to live.
“I somehow managed to twist my body and created a little bit of space. I brought my foot up and smashed it into the chimp’s chest, before scrambling back a couple of feet.
“The chimp came hurtling towards me again. But just as she was about to come crashing down a second time, the chain attached to its collar went taut.
“I was discovered by one of the circus workers, and I can still picture the look of horror on her face as she placed her hand on the back of my arm. Part of my right forearm had been torn away. It looked like a bone that had been slobbered over by a dog all day.
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“My other arm was covered in bites. I was not a pretty sight. I was rushed to hospital in an ambulance. They should have done a skin graft. Instead, they put stitches all around the wound and yanked it tight. It was never going to heal like that.
“When they removed the bandage a couple of weeks later, the doctor cut the first stitch and the wound burst open, like a badly packed kebab. But all they did was re-stitch and re-dress it and send me home.”
A week later the family went on holiday to France. Ollie sat on the beach with a plastic bag over his wound as his brother and sister played in the sea.
Over the course of the holiday everyone began to notice a terrible smell — which they eventually realised was his wound. Gangrene had set in.
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His dad rushed him to a doctor and Ollie, now 48, recalls: “He grabbed what looked like a scrubbing brush, covered it in ethanol and started scouring my arm as if it was a frying pan caked in burned-on food. I can still hear my screaming now.”
As they left the surgery, the doctor introduced his dad to a glamorous lady with a blonde beehive and they kissed each other cheek to cheek. Afterwards his dad explained: “Son, I can’t believe it. I just met Brigitte Bardot.”
It only added a curious, surreal edge to the experience, which otherwise changed Ollie for ever and made him determined to follow his own path in life.
The story features in his new autobiography, Break Point, published next week. The book focuses on how he has achieved inner peace after a series of such “break points” in his life.
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Ollie says: “My soul has been laid bare in Special Forces Selection, I’ve had machine guns pointed in my face and been under siege. But none of that came close to dicing with death with that angry circus ape.
“That snap decision to escape — a decision that was instinctive, that I was barely aware I was making — was what kept me alive. That was my first break point.”
Ollie grew up in Staffordshire and dreamed of becoming a Special Forces soldier. He was inspired by the SAS assault on the Iranian Embassy in London in 1980.
He said: “I wanted to dress in black, jump out of helicopters, smash the target, jump back on and be back home for tea and medals.”
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Unlike his more studious older brother Justin and sister Ashley, Ollie — real name Matthew — was always getting into trouble. Things escalated after his dad, who ran an engineering business, walked out on them when Ollie was 13, leaving his mum Angela to raise three kids on her own.
Ollie burned down a barn next to their house. Then he stole a shotgun from a neighbour and started venturing out at night and scaring people by firing over their heads.
He was arrested and sent to a remand home for two weeks. After his trial he got two years’ conditional discharge with supervision. At 18 he joined the Royal Marines Commandos and served in Northern Ireland and in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.
After five years he passed the six-month combined SAS and SBS selection course in 1994. He then served for six years as a Special Forces combat frogman. For his first mission, his troop intercepted a ship loaded with drugs and guarded with guns.
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Ollie says: “We headed for the sleeping quarters, kicked open the door, threw in a flash-crash grenade and started making a terrible racket. When my target opened his eyes, he was looking at a man dressed all in black, wearing a balaclava and pointing a machine gun at his face. They were hardened criminals but we could smell the p**s and s**t immediately.”
A few months later his team busted another smuggler boat. He says: “We were greeted by piles and piles of cannabis. The smell almost took my face off.”
The next day they were all out at a party where people were smoking dope. Ollie says: “My officer was there. We were looking at each other and smiling as if to say, ‘If you only knew where we’d just been’.”
Although it had been his childhood ambition to get into the SBS, the reality was less exciting than he had hoped, with long periods of inactivity — which, with other factors, led to a drink problem. He left the SBS in 2000 and ended up back in Iraq, doing various jobs as a contractor and mercenary.
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But Ollie was still battling personal demons. As well as booze, he became hooked on Valium to counter stress and began to inject steroids.
He says: “I was out of control, Baghdad was out of control. I don’t know how I lasted so long. I don’t know how I lasted at all.”
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Yet it was in Iraq that he had another break point. One evening Ollie described to a pal in great detail how they would come under attack the next day while escorting a team from ABC News. They would save the day and have their contract renewed. It all came true.
Ollie says: “The windows came down on the front vehicle and four AK-47s emerged. There I was, staring into the eyes of a young boy, his AK-47 pointed at my face from two feet away.
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“My pal and I squeezed our triggers and that was it. I could see black plumes pouring from the car and knew they weren’t coming after us.”
After that, Ollie headed to Thailand, where he helped to bust child-trafficking rings. He led a mission which saw the rescue of 22 children destined for the sex trade.
Then he returned to the UK and met up with Jason “Foxy” Fox, who he knew from the SBS. They formed a company — also called Break Point — running leadership and development courses.
Through the business he met current girlfriend Laura and she has helped him to quit drinking. Ollie says: “She’s almost flawless, like an angel that has been sent specifically for me.”
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Around the time he started his business, the opportunity arose to join the directing staff of the Channel 4 show which has made him famous. Like his TV colleagues and fellow Special Forces veterans Jason, Ant Middleton and Mark Billingham, Ollie’s primary motivation now is helping other people to achieve their true potential.
He gets up at 5am to meditate and visualise his own life goals. He is a passionate campaigner for men’s mental health and has started a charity, StrongMen.
Ollie says: “There are a lot of misconceptions about Special Forces. We are not always the most muscly guys. We are not without emotion. We have been through a lot ourselves. I had anger inside me like you wouldn’t believe but now I have found peace.”
- (Blink Publishing, £20) is out on May 2.
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