Thug attacks TV reporter

Investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre today described how a thug attacked him in revenge over his undercover investigations.

The TV presenter was running in Bushy Park, Teddington, with a woman fitness trainer yesterday morning when a man knocked him to the ground and shouted repeatedly: "You should not have done it, you f***er."

MacIntyre, 39, was nearing the end of a 10-mile run when he was ambushed. He suffered a bruised shin and knee. The pair struggled on the ground before the attacker ran off. MacIntyre ran after the man and wrestled him to the ground, but he escaped.

"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.

A friend of MacIntyre said he believed the assault was carried out by "the greater family of football hooligans".

The attacker is described as aged about 35, thick-set with long, fair hair and "intense, staring eyes". Richmond police are investigating.