Osteopath in attack on busman is jailed

A Drunken osteopath "arrested" by fellow bus passengers after he headbutted the conductor ended up at the bottom of a 15-foot roadworks pit, a court heard today.

By the time police arrived, Alex Lal's girlfriend had "somehow" joined him in the pit outside Sadler's Wells Theatre in Islington, but both were so drunk neither could remember what happened. Lal, from Islington, later discovered he had been robbed of his watch and wallet.

Despite hearing Lal's bad temper could be due to testosterone treatment for "sexual dysfunction", Judge Alan Greenwood jailed him for eight months at Snaresbrook Crown Court after he admitted assault, calling his behaviour last May "unforgivable".

After attacking conductor Kevin Rowe, breaking his nose, Lal ran off but his girlfriend was grabbed. When he went back to rescue her he was punched and robbed by a member of the public and the pair fell or were pushed into the pit.