Stranger 'shoves food into woman's mouth' in violent brawl on London Midland train from Euston

Confrontation: A fight broke out between a group of men on the train, which was travelling towards Northampton
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A young woman has told how she had food shoved into her mouth by a stranger before a violent brawl broke out between two groups of men on a train in front of horrified passengers.

Victoria Adams, 22, a former parliamentary assistant, said the man had grown angry and called her “a typical f****** Londoner” when she put her headphones in and closed her eyes in an attempt to ignore him on a train from Euston.

The ex-London School of Economics student claims he began shoving his takeaway food into her mouth and pulling on her scarf on board the London Midland train to Northampton on Saturday evening.

A fight then broke out between the rowdy passenger and several men in the carriage who attempted to drag him away from her and another woman trying to help.

Victoria Adams claimed the stranger shoved food in her mouth before a fight broke out

The man allegedly produced a snooker ball from his pocket, placed it inside a sock and began swinging it around inside the carriage in front of terrified children and families.

Account executive Ms Adams told the Standard that when the man sat down next to her after boarding the train shortly before 6pm, he began bothering her.

Ms Adams, who was on her way home to family in Milton Keynes, said: "I decided to put my headphones in as he was getting a bit annoying and that started him off.

The man sat down next to Ms Adams with his takeaway food on a London Midland service

“He was getting annoyed that I didn't want to interact and was saying 'typical f****** Londoner', so I decided to pretend to go to sleep.

"A few minutes later he started shoving food in my mouth as I had my eyes shut and then began pulling on my scarf.

"That was when a girl on the other side tried to help me and he was going crazy and screaming at her and then lunged at her, which was when other men stood up and pulled him off her.

"I then climbed out - he had pinned me against the window - and ran to another carriage.”

It is believed the groups who clashed may have been watching the game between Chelsea and Leicester on Saturday afternoon.

Adrian Horner, 50, who boarded the train at Hemel Hempstead after a day volunteering at a charity shop, attempted to calm down some of the men involved in the brawl.

Police boarded the train at Tring station

He said: “There was a lot of shouting and swearing going on in front of kids and young families. Everybody had bailed from the carriage and moved away from it all.

“People were genuinely scared and huddled together in the next carriage.

“I was slightly concerned for my own safety. A man who worked for Network Rail and I managed to stop two of the men going back down to the other carriage and it getting any worse.”

Shaken passengers left the train as it stopped at Tring station and British Transport Police officers arrived to deal with the incident.

Officers are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

A British Transport Police spokesman said: “I can confirm that a passenger posted on Twitter about an assault and disorder on the 17.54 train from Euston to Northampton on Saturday.

“We attended and spoke to the man involved. We would like to speak to anyone who was a victim of an offence in relation to this incident or who has any information about what took place.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 0800 405040 or text 61016, quoting reference 451 15/10/16 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in