This is the man who was deemed too scary for York Dungeon.

Horror writer Mick Lewis was employed as a "scary actor" at the Dungeon - but was sacked for being too frightening.

His gruesome role involved playing the part of Dick Turpin's executioner, as well as lingering in the Dungeon's doorway to entice visitors inside.

His favourite trick was to invite visitors, in a "voice that mingled Freddy Kreuger and Johnny Rotten", to "feel the caress of his noose" in the executioner scene. But after a month of scaring the living daylights out of people, he was given his cards.

"I was there to be as scary as possible," said Mick, whose second novel Rags has just been published by the BBC in its Doctor Who series.

"I had women screaming hysterically, kids carried out wailing and crowds pushing frantically to get out."

The visitors, he insisted, loved it - but his bosses at the Dungeon were less keen. "I was told that the Dungeon had to be very sensitive and that my dismissal was in a way a tribute to my acting skills," he grinned.

"But the Dungeon is a superb setting to scare the pants off people, so they should do it!"

Amanda Barton, operations manager for York Dungeon, said: "I didn't know him but I have been told that he did work here last year. We have a trial period for actors of two weeks and he didn't make his trial period.

"There is a certain standard they look for, and he didn't make it."

Updated: 15:32 Tuesday, April 24, 2001