Translink train passenger without a ticket is jailed for assaulting conductor
A judge said transport workers deserve the protection of the courts as he handed down a three months jail term to a train passenger who hit a conductor on the face after being asked if he had a ticket.
District Judge Nigel Broderick was speaking at Ballymena Magistrates' Court on Thursday where Andrew Creightton (20), of Trinity Terrace in Lisburn, was sentenced for assaulting the conductor on a train at Ballymena on September 10, 2022.
A prosecutor said the conductor asked the defendant for a train ticket and Creighton said he had no ticket and became "agitated".
The defendant said he would get money from his dad when the train arrived in Antrim.
The conductor asked him to buy a ticket and then the defendant "became aggressive and lashed out at him, striking him to the right side of his face, knocking his glasses off his face and causing some redness to the side of his face".
The conductor then withdrew to the rear of the train and police were contacted. The defendant was identified to officers when the train arrived in Antrim.
A defence barrister said the defendant had a "complex mental health background".
He said the conductor "thankfully" received "no serious injuries".
The barrister said the defendant was on the train without money to pay for his fare and a "dispute arose when he was asking for some time to be afforded an opportunity to leave the train at Antrim to speak to his father to obtain the money then pay for the fare".
The lawyer said the assault on a conductor doing his job was "unacceptable".
The defendant had previously contested the charge and had been convicted.
Judge Broderick said he recognised the defendant had a "number of difficulties" and had "struggled with his mental health over many years" and also had a "limited criminal record" but said it had been an assault on a "public servant" - a train conductor "just doing his job".
Jailing the defendant for three months, the judge said there must be a "clear message" that "public servants deserve and need the protection from courts and they are going to get that. There must be a deterrence to those who wilfully assault train conductors".
The defendant was released on £500 bail pending appeal.