A man has been jailed after he verbally abused train crew members and assaulted a police officer on a train in Rochdale.

On January 3, Lakardi Zakaryia boarded a train from Manchester Victoria train station which was heading to Leeds.

When a member of the train crew asked to see the 21-year-old's ticket, he reacted by becoming very aggressive and swearing at her.

When she sought assistance from a colleague, Zakaryia became aggressive once again and swore at the second member of staff.

British Transport Police officers were called and attended Rochdale train station, where they boarded the train and located Zakaryia, of River Terrace, Leverington, Cambridgeshire.

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The officers found that Zakaryia was clearly under the influence of alcohol and proceeded to remove him from the train. 

While they did this, Zakaryia assaulted a police officer, who was left with minor injuries.

Following a two-day investigation, Zakaryia appeared at Tameside Magistrates' Court on January 5, where he pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer and being drunk and disorderly in a public place.

He was sentenced to 12 months in jail for his actions.

Investigating officer PC Steven Martin said: "Violence of any kind will simply not be tolerated on the rail network.  What happened was totally unacceptable on every level and take the abuse of railway staff extremely seriously; no one should be subjected to this in their workplace.

"Zakaryia went from doing the crime to doing time within two days. I hope his swift arrest, charge and imprisonment sends a clear message that we will do everything in our power to stop offenders like this and keep the railway safe.” 

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