Living statues came to blows over prime spot

Though not quite a sitting duck, the target of the sickening assault was a perfectly motionless wizard. His assailant was a headless king. Both were street performers who earn their living standing still. Instead, tourists on London's Southbank watched as one "living statue" launched a frenzied attack on the other, battering him to within an inch of his life.



Dechko Ivanov, 37, who regularly performed as the Invisible King in the same lucrative spot in the shadow of the London Eye, was furious that the Silver Wizard had stolen his patch. Dressed that day in a similar silver outfit with a crown and a staff, Ivanov accused Rumen Nedelchev, 45, of stealing his audience, then clubbed him with the concrete block he used to weigh down his plinth before kicking him and then "calmly" leaving the scene on his bicycle.

Mr Nedelchev, from Brest, Belarus, was so badly injured that he spent more than three months in hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery to remove pieces of bone from his brain. His skull had to be partly rebuilt and he was left with a 14–inch scar. Ivanov, a father of one from Bulgaria, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm but was found guilty of the more serious charge of GBH with intent at Inner London Crown Court.



Sentencing Ivanov, the Recorder, Robin Allen QC, said he was guilty of a "grossly disproportionate" attack and described him as a danger to the public. He acknowledged that the two men lived a difficult life in "very strained economic circumstances" but said that it was a life and work they had both chosen.