A DRUNKEN thug who attacked a train passenger sending him hurtling towards a live track has been jailed for two years.

Luke Scott also went tumbling onto the rails, where he continued to attack Mark Bryant. The victim’s head was at one point just 18in from a 750 volt live rail.

Scott, known as Jaffa, was originally charged with attempted murder but the prosecution accepted his guilty plea to assault causing actual bodily harm.

Fiona Moore-Graham, prosecuting, said Mr Bryant first saw Scott, who he had known for about three years, at Chatham station on June 11 when waiting for a train to Newington.

Mr Bryant, from Strood, felt nervous because he had previously refused to buy alcohol for Scott, of Playstool Road, Newington, near Sittingbourne.

When the victim arrived at Newington station he saw Scott on the platform in a group of about 10 people.

“The defendant ran towards him and, without warning or provocation, struck him in the face, causing him to fall to the platform,” Miss Moore-Graham told Maidstone Crown Court: “While on the ground, he kicked him in the head and body. He shouted: ‘What would you say to my face now? Do you want some more?’”

Mr Bryant said he did not want any more, but Scott caused him to fall onto the track near a live rail. Scott followed him and kicked him in the head and body, leaving him unconscious.

A rail worker saw what happened and ensured that a train was stopped until Mr Bryant was removed from the track.

Miss Moore-Graham said the victim came round reasonably quickly. He did not want to go to hospital but did so after twice vomiting. He was treated for cuts and bruises before discharging himself.

Scott was arrested on July 21 in St Radigunds car park in Canterbury. When told he was suspected of attempted murder, he replied: “I know what you are talking about. It was just a fight. I had a fight with my mate. When the train pulled away, we rolled onto the track.”

Miss Moore-Graham said Scott had been in trouble on “many occasions”. In 1998, he was jailed for eight years for conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm and aggravated burglary.

Tom Stern, defending, said Scott, who had been a heroin addict, did not attempt to justify his actions in any way. He did not class himself as a violent person.

“Drink seems to have lowered his level of tolerance in terms of how he might react to a comment made to him,” said Mr Stern. “It is fortuitous, perhaps, that the level of injury was at the lower end of the scale.”

Judge Warwick McKinnon told Scott that it was a serious assault with potentially grave consequences. There had been insufficient evidence, he said, to show that Scott intended to kill Mr Bryant or cause him grievous bodily harm.

“No doubt, as far as this offence is concerned, drink is at the root of it,” he said. “No other sentence than a significant custodial sentence could be justified due to the gravity of the offence.”