Liam Neeson has admitted to carrying around a cosh and hoping to come across a "black b------" to kill with it after his friend was sexually assaulted.

The 66-year-old actor said he felt strong urges to carry out a racially-aggravated attack after learning that the man who attacked his friend was black.

The Taken star said he had come back home from overseas to find a close female friend had been raped.

He has declined to disclose the name of his friend, or to give further details about the attack.

Neeson said he felt "ashamed" of his past "awful" urges after disclosing that for a week he walked around hoping someone would provoke him so that he could attack them.

"She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way," he told The Independent.

He explained his mindset at the time, adding: "But my immediate reaction was... I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person.

"I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I'd be approached by somebody - I'm ashamed to say that - and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some black b------d would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him."