Fifteen football fans sentenced after terrifying brawl at train station

Updated
football fight at train station
football fight at train station


Fifteen Nottingham Forest and Doncaster Rovers football fans have been sentenced for their part in a violent brawl at Newark Northgate railway station, which left a man with serious facial injuries.

The men were sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday and all had pleaded guilty at earlier hearings.

Ringleaders Steven Marsden, 54, and Christopher Cox, 48, were sentenced to 12 months in prison and handed a six-year football banning order.

Two other Forest fans were given the same sentences and three others were given suspended sentences and 180 hours of community service.

Six Doncaster fans were ordered to serve 140 hours of community service and three received four-month suspended sentences.

The court heard how on Saturday 27 April 2013 Nottingham Forest fans were returning from an away fixture at Millwall. On the same day Doncaster Rovers were playing a league match at Brentford which saw them promoted to the Championship.

One of the defendants, Jamie Johnson, 31, a Nottingham Forest supporter, had become involved in a verbal altercation with a Doncaster supporter prior to the train's departure from Kings Cross. After being threatened on the train he phoned a friend in Newark claiming he feared for his safety on the train.

Six Forest supporters turned up on the platform at Newark station to meet Johnson and the train. As it pulled into the station they began banging on the train window.

The Nottingham Forest fans on the train then merged with the men on the platform, verbal exchanges then ensued with the Rovers fans before disorder broke out in the vestibule area on the train.

This then spilled onto the platform and into the train carriage, causing a number of passengers and rail staff on the train and at the station to fear for their safety.

One of the defendants Ashley Allen, 20, was stabbed in the face with a broken bottle which left him with significant facial injuries.

British Transport Police Detective Inspector Glen Alderson said: "This was a terrifying ordeal for the passengers and staff who were at the station and on the train at the time of the incident. They were left fearing for their safety and understandably shaken and traumatised by the incident.

"Glass bottles were thrown and one of the defendants involved in the fighting was stabbed in the face with a broken bottle.

"We simply do not tolerate this type of violent and barbaric behaviour.

"I hope that being banned from the club, along with the sentences handed down today serves as a stark reminder that football related disorder on the rail network is utterly unacceptable and will seek the maximum penalties for anyone involved."

Related articles

Three men wanted after violent 'football fan' fight on train

England football fan in coma after bar fight in Italy

Advertisement