"It was a completely unprovoked attack, shocking and frightening, which took me by surprise," said MacIntyre. The attack follows a series of threats to him linked to investigations into football violence and eastern European crime gangs. His exposè of the notorious "Headhunter" gang of Chelsea football hooligans in 1999, in the programme MacIntyre Undercover, resulted in long sentences for two ringleaders for conspiracy to commit violent disorder - and turned the reporter into a target for soccer thugs across Britain.