A bodyguard for Israel's military chief of staff was sentenced on Thursday to eight years in prison for sexual assault, public radio reported.

Captain Erez Ephrati, 30, was arrested last year near Tel Aviv after he tried to rape a young woman after attending a party held for him.

Passers-by and police intervened when they heard the victim screaming.

Ephrati was found guilty of assault and attempted sodomy.

He served in a unit of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, which provides protection for the prime minister, chief of staff of the army and other top officials.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon