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30
Jan
Man jailed for 'revenge' train attack on Harrogate line
A fare-dodging passenger tried to pull a train driver out of his cab before lying on the railway tracks to block the locomotive’s path and hurling rocks and ballast at the driver’s windscreen.
Richard Disbury, 37, had just been released from custody at York Magistrates’ Court when he boarded a train at the city’s railway station without a ticket.
Disbury, who magistrates had just been given a conditional discharge for shoplifting, having recently served a prison sentence for battery, began ““staggering around” and “being a nuisance” to other passengers on the Harrogate-bound train.
The passengers complained to the train manager about his behaviour, said prosecutor Eleanor Durdy.
When the train arrived at Hammerton Station, the manager ordered him off the train, but belligerent Disbury refused to leave.
He told the train manager:
You will not be able to get me off this train. You will need five or six people.
She then saw him moving between tables and he began throwing a sandwich around.
“She alerted the (named) train driver that she would not allow the train to depart when (Disbury) was still on board,” added Ms Durdy.
Disbury, who was heavily drunk, finally got off the train, calling the train manager a deeply unpleasant name.
Ms Durdy added:
He then tried to pull the train driver out of the cab by pulling his arm.
He then trespassed on the track and laid across the track, obstructing the train and causing lengthy delays to passengers on board and other service users using that network.
Threw rocks at train
He then threw track ballast and rocks at the train, striking and cracking the double-layered driver’s windscreen, “then threw ballast at other windows”.
The damage to the train from the mindless rock-throwing was put at £19,951 and the train service was held up for well over an hour.
“There was a further cost of just over £1,400 caused by cancellations on the train line,” said Ms Durdy.
The train being out of action by Disbury’s moronic behaviour caused a total 87 minutes’ worth of delays to service users and cost Network Rail a total £21,389 in repairs.
“Network Rail estimated the disruption caused £2,600 to the company due to delays,” said Ms Durdy.
Didsbury, a drifter and “public nuisance” with no fixed address, was arrested at the scene and was described by the arresting officer as “challenging”.
After being put in the police van, he started banging his head against the vehicle as he was transported to custody.
In police interview he told officers he had just been released from court that morning and that he immediately had a drink.
“He said he was heavily intoxicated,” added Ms Durdy.
Jumped on tracks
Disbury, who claimed to have been homeless for years, said he was “stuck in the middle of nowhere” when he got off the train in Hammerton, and was “alone with a backpack and a sleeping bag when a woman asked him to leave the train, so he jumped on the tracks”.
The train manager described the incident as “frightening” and said that afterwards she “shut herself in the train cab and cried”.
She added:
I was absolutely terrified of this male. I thought he was going to harm me or my colleague. I was trapped on the train and was responsible for every other passenger on that service. We had to drive a smashed-up service back to Harrogate.
She was so shaken by the experience that she had to take the next day off work to recover.
“She said this male was by far the worst person that she had ever dealt with,” added Ms Durdy.
The named train driver said:
This event terrified me. I should not have to go to work and fear for my own safety.
63 previous convictions
Disbury was charged with obstructing a railway, assault, criminal damage and public disorder. He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence today (January 30).
The court heard he had 63 previous convictions for 128 offences including drink-related violence, public-order offences, and assaulting emergency workers including British Transport Police officers. He had skipped rail fares on “numerous” previous occasions and had breached multiple court orders.
He had racked up criminal convictions all over the country, “from Scotland to Cornwall to Herefordshire”.
Disbury, who represented himself in court, said he had got on the train “with a backpack and no money”.
Judge Sean Morris told him:
You are 37 and, quite remarkably, you have been convicted at courts up and down this land time and time again. Frankly, you are a public nuisance.
On this day, having been released from custody, you were disgracefully rude and abusive to the train manager who was just doing her job. You obstructed a railway line and you started smashing up the train and got hold of the train driver.
The judge said that throwing rocks at the train was clearly a “revenge attack” for being told to leave the service.
He described the incident, which occurred on September 17 last year, as “shocking”, adding:
Trying to smash the windscreen of a train shows to me that your intention was to cause very serious damage and indeed you did.
You have not shown one shred of remorse. It’s all about you.
Disbury was jailed for two years and four months but was told he would serve less than half of that behind bars before being released on prison licence.
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