{"id":406452,"date":"2026-02-03T23:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T23:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/406452\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T23:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T23:45:07","slug":"london-bus-driver-who-punched-thief-made-me-feel-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/406452\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;London bus driver who punched thief made me feel safe&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">CCTV evidence played at the tribunal showed the thief throwing a punch at Hehir.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I noticed him making a left swing, so on instinct I retaliated with a right,&#8221; the 62-year-old said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Both Hehir and the passenger were arrested over the altercation, which happened between Wembley and Maida Vale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hehir, who is originally from County Limerick and now lives in Wembley, was later released and told he would not face further police action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The day after the incident, on 25 June 2024, Hehir was suspended from duty and told to attend an investigation. He was later dismissed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The subsequent employment tribunal heard from the Met Police, which said Hehir&#8217;s response had been &#8220;proportionate and necessary in the circumstances&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A Metroline spokesperson said: &#8220;The Independent Employment Tribunal has upheld the dismissal as fair. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The claimant breached protocols designed to keep staff and passengers safe, which is our priority.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CCTV evidence played at the tribunal showed the thief throwing a punch at Hehir. &#8220;I noticed him making&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-406452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}