Bricklayers who attacked men on Reading train spared jail

Judge Heather Norton had previously told the trio she was considering locking them up for the drink-fuelled assault on two men on a train in Reading but she decided to be lenient after hearing that one of the defendants was an employer.

She told Gary Deacon and Kieran Franklin they had cause to be grateful to their co-defendant Thomas Kirby because he had saved them all from going to prison as a result of his responsibilities.

Earlier the judge had heard how the bricklayers had battered two men who were upset about vomit in the train toilet who who complained when they had trouble getting into the cubicle.

Kirby, Deacon and Franklin were seen being drunk and disorderly on the last train home from Reading to Newbury, on May 5 last year and one of them had been sick in the train toilets.

Two fellow passengers, Nicholas Beham and David Williams, tried to use the toilets although they were in a disgusting condition and they were having trouble operating the toilet door, the court heard.

It was not known whether they made some comment about the state of the toilets, although it was suggested in court that the noise of the toilet door may have disturbed the bricklayer trio, who were apparently trying to sleep.

Three of them got up and began punching, kicking and stomping on their victims, who were left curled up on the train floor.

Following the assault on the last train, the three were charged by British Transport Police with causing actual bodily harm and affray.

Kirby, 32, of Bourne Vale, Hungerford; Deacon, 32, of Mount Road, Thatcham and Franklin, 29, of Martingale Chase, Newbury, admitted the offences at their first appearance before Judge Heather Norton.

Prosecutor Sarah McIntyre told the court that Mr Williams had been unable to travel on trains since the incident and had suffered an anxiety attack when he had forced himself to try.

Mr Beham was also claiming £300 to compensate for a broken denture.

Ms McIntyre also revealed that all three bricklayers had previous convictions including assault, battery, assaulting a police officer, and being drunken disorderly.

Defending the men, their separate barristers argued they were all in employment and pointed out Kirby employed five people, two of who had families of their own.

Judge Norton, sentencing, told the three: "All three of you were extremely drunk.

"There was an issue relating to the toilet on the train.

"It appears at least one of you had been sick in there.

"Later, when other people went to use those facilities, you became involved in an argument.

"It was wholly unprovoked.

"If there were comments made by one side to the other, it should not have made a blind bit of difference.

"This was frankly unacceptable behaviour, it was extreme violence in a confined space that was wholly unnecessary and wholly unacceptable and wholly without any excuse whatsoever.

"All three of you have previous conviction for offences of violence or criminal damage or public order offences or excess alcohol, effectively offences of antisocial behaviour committed whilst under the influence of alcohol."

The judge, however, pointed out the fact Kirby employed people as the main reason why she passed a 15-month suspended sentence, suspended for 18 months, which included a 300-hour unpaid work requirement, an overnight curfew, and an order for each man to pay £400 of compensation to be divided between the two victims.

Judge Norton said: "You Mr Franklin and you Mr Deacon have cause to be grateful to Mr Kirby.

"I make it very clear you are escaping custody by the skin of your teeth and I pass the sentence that I do through clenched teeth.

"I am not at all convinced I have done the right thing."