'Big Man' Charged With Assault After Train Eviction Video Incident

'Big Man' Charged With Assault After Train Eviction Video Incident

A man has been charged with assault after a teenage boy was thrown off a train following an argument with a ticket inspector, British Transport Police have confirmed.

The dispute took place on an Edinburgh Waverley to Perth service on Friday 9 December when the conductor held the train at a station while Sam Main, 19, a student at Heriott Watt university, was told to get off or produce a valid ticket.

“I'll sit here all night pal” the conductor said, “I'm getting paid for this but they [the passengers] will start moaning. Why should they pay and not you?"

The dispute was ended when a passenger dubbed "Big Man" stepped in, the video showed.

Alan Pollock, 35, from Stirling, was named locally as the man who allegedly stepped in and removed Main from the train.

British Transport Police have said they received complaints against two men.

"British Transport Police can now confirm that a 35-year-old man from Stirling and a 19-year-old man from Falkirk are the subject of a report to the local procurator fiscal in connection with an incident on board the 9.33pm Edinburgh Waverley to Perth service, at Linlithgow on Friday December 9 2011," a spokesman said.

Since the incident Main has claimed that he was sold the wrong type of ticket when he boarded the train and had tried to explain that to the ticket inspector.

He told a Radio Scotland Phone-in last week that his own behaviour did not excuse Pollock's actions.

"I don't condone the way I spoke to the conductor, but still there's no way that anybody possibly who has seen the video can condone the way Alan Pollock chose to handle the situation," he said.

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