Peter Mullan, the acclaimed star of the Netflix series *Ozark*, was headbutted by a stranger while attempting to prevent an assault on a woman outside a concert venue in Glasgow, Scotland, in September 2022. The incident occurred when Mullan, 66, saw a man aggressively handling his girlfriend and felt compelled to intervene.
In a recent interview, Mullan described the moment he decided to act. “I was walking past and saw what was going on. He was pulling his girlfriend all over the shop. I couldn’t, in all good conscience, walk away from what I was seeing,” he told the *Scottish Sun*. After he approached the assailant, identified as Dylan Bennett, 29, Mullan urged him to leave the situation. “I said, ‘look, the cops have been called, why don’t you just walk away?’”
Bennett responded by knocking Mullan’s cap off his head and subsequently headbutting him. “That’s when he nutted me,” Mullan recounted. “He got me a cracker, but I didn’t go down. That scared the life out of him. I just glared at him and he started whimpering.” During the confrontation, Bennett also brandished a glass bottle towards both Mullan and the woman.
After the altercation, Mullan sustained a head injury but expressed that he would take the same action again if required. “I would do it again if I had to,” he stated.
Bennett was later sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of assault at Glasgow Sheriff Court. His lawyer, Tony Callaghan, informed the court that Bennett had been at an all-night party and had consumed drugs and alcohol prior to the incident. “An argument developed between himself and his partner but they don’t know what it was about,” Callaghan said. He added that Bennett “deeply regrets his involvement in this incident, especially to the innocent bystander.”
The court heard from prosecutor Josh Dowie that Bennett had violently shaken his partner, holding her by the neck for ten seconds before Mullan intervened.
Mullan’s decision to step in reflects a personal history of confronting violence. The actor has publicly shared his experiences growing up in a tumultuous household dominated by an alcoholic father, which subjected his family to years of psychological and physical abuse. Mullan has often discussed the lasting emotional impact of his upbringing, including a troubling moment from his youth when he attempted to poison his father with sleeping pills.
This recent event underscores both Mullan’s character and his commitment to standing against violence, no matter the personal risk involved.
