A THUG who carried out a brutal assault on a Dudley woman after a dispute on a bus has been caged.

Marinus Howell threw a can of drink down the aisle of the 276 bus after it had left Merry Hill which hit an elderly woman and soaked fellow passenger Sandy Young who called him an "idiot."

The 33-year-old father of four then walked towards Miss Young who, convinced she was going to be struck, lashed out hitting Howell in the face.

Cathlyn Orchard, prosecuting, told the court: "He then picked her up and threw her to the floor before repeatedly kicking her in the face,"

Judge John Wait told Howell: "You kicked the victim in the face close to her eye and it is fortunate for her and you that she did not lose her sight."

The attack only stopped when a woman travelling with him intervened.

The court heard Howell hurled the drink can after a dispute arose between the bus driver and another passenger at a stop in Netherton.

The judge said: "You involved yourself in an argument at the front of the bus that had nothing to do with you. You then carried out what was a serious unprovoked assault in a public place."

Howell, of Kemberton Road, Finchfield, Wolverhampton, initially claimed he had been acting in self defence but he pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm and was jailed for a year.

Miss Orchard told the court that Miss Young suffered a blood clot to the eye and it had to removed at hospital.