BBC host’s ‘shame at attack’
BBC Radio 4 presenter Eddie Mair yesterday told how he was attacked by a gang of hooded thugs in the street but was “too ashamed” to report the ordeal.
Mair, 52, was confronted by three youths on bikes as he waited for a bus in London five days before Christmas last year.
The PM programme host tried to film the yobs on his phone but said it may have provoked them.
When the bus arrived and he turned to climb on board he was struck from behind by a flurry of blows which left him badly bruised.
He said: “I felt I may have been in some way responsible for what happened."
Mair was struck on the head after boarding the vehicle, leaving a large bruise above his right ear.
He wrote in a Sunday newspaper how the attack started at a bus station on his way home from dinner with friends.
“One wheeled his front wheel up into my face,” he said.
“I felt like prey – somewhat intimidated.
“I was increasingly embarrassed I hadn’t reported the crime.”
He then told police before a trip to South America, where his bag was stolen.