Former Emmerdale and Shameless star Kelli Hollis wrote to a judge to ask if a thug who launched a brutal attack on a couple could be shown mercy.

The TV actress wrote a glowing reference for violent criminal Lee Brimble, 36, after he admitted carrying out the attack on a mother-of-three and her boyfriend outside his home in Leeds.

But her plea, written in support of Brimble who had co-starred in a TV movie with her, fell on deaf ears as he was jailed for two years and eight months.

The terrified children of victims Kelly Brawley and Mark Hughes watched in horror as Brimble punched their parents to the ground outside his home in Halton Moor, Leeds, West Yorkshire, on June 27, 2019.

The actress’s testimonial on behalf of Brimble was pased to the judge but not read out in open court.

The court heard that the couple had been at a family function earlier in the evening and that Kelly went home in a taxi with her three children while her partner Mark stayed at the event.

Prosecutors told the court that Kelly received information that her partner was involved in a fight with Brimble outside his home and she drove to the scene with her children.

CCTV footage played to the court showed Brimble with his shirt off ‘in preparation for violence’ at which point he punched Mark to the ground before turning on Kelly when she tried to intervene, according to the Yorkshire Post.

Kelly is scarred for life after suffering a shattered eye socket and severe lacerations to her face which needed three operations and required six plates to be fitted.

The former hotel housekeeper told the court: ‘It genuinely breaks my heart to look at myself in the mirror.’

The assaults were caught on CCTV and the footage, which Brimble himself said made him feel ‘sick’ was seen by the judge.