LONDON, Oct 19: A man who punched Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson in the groin outside a London train station last month was jailed for 15 months on Thursday. The 43-year-old Kevin Reynolds from Scotland, who was described as a homeless ‘fighting drunk’ in court, had pleaded guilty to assault and to attacking and racially abusing a police support officer who was called to the scene.

Ferguson was waiting to be picked up outside the Euston train station in central London after travelling from Manchester to attend an annual charity event when the attack happened on Sept 10. He had soreness and tenderness after being punched, but was not seriously injured.

Reynolds had been released from a prison sentence for assaulting a police officer just five days before the attack on Ferguson.

He was sentenced to 15 months jail for the attack on the support officer, with a concurrent five-month sentence for the assault on Ferguson.

“You are, in the words of the probation officer, a homeless alcoholic who accepts no responsibility for your violent behaviour, and indeed minimises the seriousness of your offending,” Judge Paul Dodgson of Southwark Crown Court told Reynolds in sentencing.—AP