A NORTH-EAST man has become the world's first kung fu action film hero with Down's Syndrome, in a movie aimed at tackling prejudices surrounding disabilities.

Ged Watts, from Redcar, east Cleveland, plays Stranger Hero, in a short film produced by Shoot Your Mouth Off - a Hartlepool-based digital media production company.

Steve Carolan, the writer/director of Stranger Danger, built the character around Mr Watts, 34, who is also a goalkeeper in the England Special Olympics football team.

The film, which lasts just over five minutes, shows Stranger Hero arriving in lawless wastelands to find a dying man, also with Down's Syndrome, who warns him that "they're still here" before he dies.

Stranger Hero is then confronted by sinister, gas-masked gangsters who taunt him using words, including "mongoloid" and "retard".

He springs into action and deals with his enemies, fighting like a demon because he believes they have killed the love of his life. The film ends on a cliff-hanger as the hero wheels the corpse away.

Stranger Hero was shown at the opening night of X08, the eighth London Disability Film Festival, hosted by the London Disability Arts Forum, last night.

It was screened before the main feature, Special People, in front of the biggest audience during the four-day event.

Mr Watts and some of his family travelled to London with Mr Carolan and producer Karen Sheader to attend the screening and the aftershow party.

Ms Sheader, part of Shoot Your Mouth Off, said Ged was the star of the show.

She said: "He is such a striking-looking person - he definitely looks like a poster boy icon and is very athletic.

"I had seen him dancing and also knew him as a goalkeeper, and the director was convinced that, with a bit of training, Ged could do kung fu.

"Between us, we knew we could create something really unusual with this guy because of his fitness."

Mr Watts is also an aspiring actor and member of the Earthbeat Theatre company, in Saltburn, east Cleveland.

Ms Sheader said: "Ged had never done anything like this before, but he has done really well with the film.

"He goes to Earthbeat two or three days a week, so we knew he had experience of acting, but mainly in musicals. I used to work for Tees Valley Arts in Middlesbrough and ran a dance project called Changing Tide and he was a great dancer."

Ms Sheader said the motivation for producing an action hero of this nature was to present a different image of disabled people and disabled actors.

She said: "Stranger Hero ultimately will be a victor, not a victim, as disabled people are often portrayed in films and television. The aim is also to combat prejudice, of course, but in a way which doesn't thump people over the head with a dry, political correctness. We want to entertain people."

The film-makers are hoping to attract funding to make further episodes.

The film can be seen on YouTube.