Bus driver Douglas Williams, 58, and betting shop manager Cavan Sexton, 60, did not know each other before they became victims of teenager Adrian Hird, but have since become friends while waiting for justice.

Grandfather-of-one Mr Williams, a life-long Wakefield Harriers member, was attacked by Hird, 18, and Daniel Ramsdale, 27, while driving the Dewsbury to Wakefield bus in August 2006. He was left with a black eye, an injured elbow and sore ribs.

The Middlestown man has driven buses for 40 years but doesn’t know whether he will get behind the wheel again as he fears for his personal safety.

Mr Williams told the Wakefield Express: “That’s three times I’ve been assaulted in six years at work. It’s been horrific for me as I’ve found I’ve had post-traumatic stress from six years ago.

“If I hear a bus now or anything to do with   transport, it sends alarm bells going.”

Mr Willams, who won a bronze medal in the 1990 Athens marathon in the over 40s class, is back at work after a long lay-off but has been put on light duties by his employer Arriva.

Bookmaker Mr Sexton, who had worked in the racing industry for four decades, said he will never work in a betting shop again.

Hird repeatedly hit him over the head with a beer bottle and demanded money from the shop he managed in Sharlston last December.

Mr Sexton said Hird had been in and out of the shop all day, even prancing around in his boxer shorts. He was on first-name terms with his attacker and Hird lived in the same village he worked in.

“There was no way he was going to get away with it,” said Mr Sexton.

He was closing up on December 2 and before he realised what was happening he’d been hit twice with a bottle.

He said: “I was fighting for my life. He wouldn’t stop hitting me on the head with the bottle. I was trying to get his arms to try and get him to drop the bottle. Eventually I headbutted him, he’d got my arms.”

Despite the grandfather-of-three’s brave attempts to defend himself he suffered a partial dislocation of his shoulder. He also had a bruised left eye and was covered in blood.

The grandparents’ attackers were locked up for a total of five-and-a-half years this week, which pleased both victims.

Mr Sexton and Mr Williams said something good had come from their frightening experiences – friendship. They met at court and plan to keep in touch.