Jail Term for Man Who Threatened Tube Employee
Monday, April 26th, 2010
The Brent Magistrates’ Court ordered Teisutis Macius, who threatened to break a bottle made of glass against the face of a London Underground worker, to a month-and-a-half jail sentence on March 25, Thursday. He admitted his guilt of having behaved in a racist and dangerous manner to the tube worker. Apart from being convicted and punished for five weeks, he received an additional week of punishment for having been absent for a previous hearing.
The event in question happened barely after 12 a.m. on February 6, a Saturday, at the Wembley Park Tube station. Macius was told to go away from the station since he was drunk and walking about inebriated across the station. On being asked to leave, he became obnoxious and started abusing the staff member. Macius then proceeded to swing the bottle he had towards the employee and stated that he would break it in his face and made several racist comments.
The British Transport Police (BTP) were called in and Macius was promptly taken into custody. The PC, Miguel Orjales stated that it must have been really scary for the tube employee to have a bottle swung at him. Luckily, he was not harmed and he hoped that the worker concerned would feel that just punishment has been given to Macius with the six-weeks-long gaol term. Over and above that, Macius has also been directed to compensate his victim with £100.
The manager of London Underground’s Workplace Violence Unit, Aidan Harris, stated that Macius was a threat to his self and other people and such dangerous actions will not be put up with. This ruling is expected to be a strong enough incentive against the occurrence of such incidents of work related violence. He reiterated that actions of malice and abuse would not be tolerated against any person who was merely doing his or her work.
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