Appeal after Southeastern train assault with broken bottle
British Transport Police are appealing for help after a man was attacked with a broken bottle on a train.
The suspects left the train at Welling, which was a service from Charing Cross to Dartford.
In their appeal, British Transport Police state that at 11.20pm on Thursday 22nd July “two teenage girls and one boy were causing a disturbance on the train and asked them to be quiet.”
“They became verbally abusive and threatening towards the victim. The boy then smashed a bottle of Smirnoff vodka on the seat of the train and swung it towards the victim, cutting his hand.”
“The boy then kicked the victim several times, before the group got off the train at Welling station.”
If you have any information, please contact BTP by texting 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40 quoting reference 766 of 22/07/21.
The victim attended hospital for injuries to his hand.
While additional staffing may not have prevented it, it doesn’t help that evening trains on Southeastern Metro are a free-for-all. There are no onboard staff apart from the driver and almost all stations are unstaffed (and even if so, staff visibility is next to non-existent).
Even central London station see all barriers opened up. It’s a world away from the tube and some other train operating companies.
It also does little to encourage rail as safe means of transport in south east London.
Totally agree John, this kind of occurrence exposes the lack of safe travel provisions. Females I suspect feel especially vulnerable. If they must remove staff by cost cutting they need to provide alternate safety measures, be it cctv on all platforms and in all carriages or a safety button easily accessible to adults by seats which activates alarms, whatever method is proven to help, it needs to replace the lack of on board and off board staff.
Absolutely agree John & Derek. There needs to be more CCTV on all platforms and more staff at stations and on the trains at all times. Travelling on public transport needs to be made much safer.
Fare evasions cost the rail operators millions of pounds a year which could be avoided with more staff visable on at stations with barriers manned at all times.
Travelling on public transport in South East London is not safe and action needs to be taken as aoon as possible to improve safety on public transport.
Thank you for alerting us to this Incident John on a late night train.
@ Derek you make some very valid points and suggestions for improving safety on trains and platforms.
The photos provided are very clear so hopefully all three with be caught soon and taken to court to face the consequences of their actions.
@ Graham you also make a valid point about fare evasion. The money lost to fare evasion each year by train operators in this case South Eastern could go on recruiting more staff and providing extra CCTV and safety measures on the platforms and trains. So passengers can travel safely on public transport in South East London which they have every right to do.
Seems the CCTV was highly effective in this case based on the image above. Article has nothing to do with fare evasion. When one sees a group of drunk, aggressive teenagers on a train headed for Welling, the best course of action is to move to another carriage, not ‘tell them off’. Bystander apathy is too high in London – no one will lift a finger.
“ Fare evasions cost the rail operators millions of pounds a year which could be avoided with more staff visable on at stations with barriers manned at all times”
= Then they’d have to pay the extra staff; they don’t want this additional cost as it will cut into their profit margin. Note the consistent removal of ticket offices and rail staff since train services were privatised: it’s not fare evasion that creates the environment for incidents like the one above – evidently it’s considered not cost effective to do anything about it.
Ha they will be dragged out of their beds over the next 48hrs with CCTV quality like that and it serves them right. Get them into a hard graft apprenticeship before they end up in prison for the rest of their lives
Only one of them did anything that’s actually a criminal offence. The other two are just girls who were with him. What will they charged with? Arguing?Not a good result if he gains an apprenticeship by glassing someone. I remember articles in the 00’s about them getting free holidays as ‘rehabilitation’ …
The one in the cap looks like someone already punched him in the face; which is apt …
I agree Ballard bystander apathy is to high in London. Another thing which really annoys me is people standing around filming incidents on their mobile phones. But then say they saw nothing if questioned by Police.
That’s probably because they want to monetise the footage: societal end-point for hypercapitalism. Privatisation of public transport/ privatisation and monetisation of random violence.