Complaint over passenger's ejection from train
By: Chris Milner
A passenger who removed a teenager from a First ScotRail train after a dispute with a ticket inspector is to face assault charges.
The alleged incident took place on board the 21.33 Edinburgh Waverley to Perth service on December 9, 2011, in which a 19-year old youth is apparently told by a ticket inspector to get off the train as he does not appear to have a valid ticket.
The student refuses to leave the train, which has been halted at Linlithgow station, and is filmed using profane language, much to the annoyance of other passengers, some of them children.
Eventually, after several minutes of argument, a fellow passenger – named locally as Alan Pollock, 35, from Stirling and dubbed by the national press as the ‘Big Man’ – leaves his seat and, after speaking with the inspector, removes the man from the train.
Most of the incident was filmed on a mobile phone by another passenger and has been uploaded to the YouTube website. As of December 21, it had been viewed 1,876,000 times and can be seen at www.youtube.com/
watch?v=eKKADFIEX84
British Transport Police confirmed on December 21 that a 35-year-old man from Stirling had been charged with assault following a complaint over a teenager’s ejection from a train.
Meanwhile, the student has been reported to the procurator fiscal under Section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing Act Scotland (which relates to threatening and abusive behaviour), and also in connection with an allegation of trespass. A Crown Office spokesman said: "The reports remain under consideration by the procurator fiscal."
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