Man kicked through bus window

The passenger tumbled onto the street like a rag doll after being kicked through the top window of a double-decker bus in London, England.

He is now paralysed from the waist down while his attacker has beaten all charges against him.

CCTV footage of the savage attack, which happened near Finsbury, north of London, on the afternoon of December 27, 2012, was taken from a camera on a bus travelling directly behind the double-decker.

But the footage aired for the first time only two nights ago on BBC Two's The Route Masters: Running London's Roads, which examined how police investigate crimes on London's buses.

Detective Constable Tony Barun, from London's Metropolitan Police Service, told the program: "It's ... shocking to see something as graphic and violent as this.

"We know these windows can be kicked out with a great deal of effort, but to see someone kicked so hard that he actually goes through the window and it pops the window out of its frame — I've never seen that before."

The driver of the bus told the program that passengers had alerted him to a fight on the upper deck.

"So I'm slowing down and as I'm slowing down I look in my near side mirror and I just see a body drop," he said.

He said when he stopped the bus and checked on the victim, he appeared in a "bad way".

"He was trying to get up but couldn't. He had spinal injuries. Then after a little while he started coughing up blood. Luckily there was a nurse passing by so she stayed with him."

A suspect fled the scene at the time but the following month a 38-year-old man was arrested and charged with grievous bodily harm with intent. He was later acquitted, however.

The victim's sister, named on the program as Gillian, said: "I'm still finding it hard to believe that someone's actually injured my brother in this way.

"At the moment they can't pinpoint a time on his recovery due to the fact that his back was so badly broken and his spinal cord was damaged. He needs to recover from his broken back before we even know if he's able to walk again."

Sources: Daily Mail, Telegraph
Author: Erin Tennant, Approving editor: Matthew Henry