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12
Dec
'Violent man' held up Harrogate-bound train for 87 minutes after lying on railway tracks
A “violent man” held up a Harrogate-bound train for 87 minutes after lying on railway tacks and smashing its windows, causing £18,500 worth of damage.
Richard Disbury, 37, held up the service at Hammerton station on September 17 this year just hours after being handed a conditional discharge at court, Harrogate Magistrates Court heard yesterday (December 11).
Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, told the court that Disbury, who had been drinking after leaving magistrates court in York where he appeared for a shop theft charge, boarded the Harrogate line train at York Station without a ticket.
Ms Tyrer said a named train guard, who was working on the service, saw the 37-year-old “staggering around” and “being a nuisance” towards passengers when the train departed.
Hammerton Station. Picture: Network Rail.
The named victim said that when Disbury spotted her watching him, he shouted: “What are you staring at?”
Ms Tyrer said:
Mr Disbury had no ticket and had no intention of travelling. The [named victim] then saw him moving between tables and he began throwing a sandwich around.
He told the guard: ‘You will not be able to get me off this train. You will need five people’.
The train stopped at Hammerton station, where the named victim got onto the platform to go towards the drivers carriage to request that Disbury be removed from the train.
Ms Tyrer said the defendant then got off the train and began hurling abuse at the train guard calling her an “ugly b****”, fat and shouted “your dad should have used a condom”.
Disbury then tried to get into the drivers cab, the court heard. But the named driver pushed him away.
£18,500 worth of damage
The 37-year-old then stepped onto the railway tracks in front of the train and began walking between platforms.
He laid down on the tracks, the court heard, which prevented the service from leaving the station.
The named train guard called 999 for police to attend, Ms Tyrer said.
She added:
All traffic on the railway line was stopped. The train was full of passengers.
Disbury then began picking up rocks from the railway tracks and throwing them at the train, which was owned by Northern.
Three windows were smashed and caused £18,519.83 worth of damage, the court heard.
The train guard was forced to move passengers away from the damaged windows. Disbury continued to hurl abuse at her, Ms Tyrer said
Police arrested Disbury at the station. The train was forced to terminate at Harrogate station after it was delayed for 87 minutes due to his offences.
The court heard that the incident caused six cancellations on the Harrogate line and Northern was left to pay £2,612 in compensation to passengers on the service.
In a victim impact statement read out in court, the train guard said she was left “terrified” and it knocked her confidence.
She said:
It terrified me seeing a man that violent and knowing there would have been nothing I could do.
I was confident in dealing with them [fare dodgers] now I am not. I need to have people with me. This is the most scared I have been in my career.
Ms Tyrer said Disbury had a "lengthy record" of previous convictions, including assault and public order offences.
‘Do what you must’
Disbury admitted obstructing a train, assault, criminal damage and using threatening and abusive words to cause alarm at Harrogate Magistrates Court.
The 37-year-old, who is already serving a nine-month prison sentence for a separate offence at HMP Hull, appeared at the hearing from custody.
He decided to represent himself and told magistrates he had little to add to the prosecution’s evidence.
Disbury said he felt that he had been forced to get off the train “in the middle of nowhere”.
He said:
I had been homeless for seven years. I was scared and I flipped out. There is not really any defence for that. Do what you must.
Magistrates adjourned the case for sentence to York Crown Court on January 7.
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