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A hotel night porter from Lewisham was hailed ‘hero’ after he refused to give two armed thieves access to the hotel’s safe whilst being tortured.

Frank Stuart, 51, wason night duty at Jury’s Hotel when two men came in around 3.30am wearing stockings on their faces and demanded he tell them where the keys were to the safe.

One of the burglars hit Stuart with a hammer whilst the other cut his face and hands and then tied him up and left him for dead when they realised they wasn’t getting anywhere.

Hotel manager Jeremy Bates called him a ‘hero’ as“he refused to give in, even though he knew where the keys were kept”..

Lewisham Police described the men as “particularly vicious” after leaving Stuart with lacerations and severe bruising and getting away with only £15 from a fruit machine at the hotel

Detective Inspector, James Dalloway, described the men as being white with local accents.

Stuart’s wife said he was “brave” as “the more the men tortured him the more he was determined not to let him get away with it.”

Stuart is said to be in a ‘satisfactory’ condition in Whittington Hospital in North London but could stay for a further week after having 35 stitches to his face and hands.