AN army officer and a university lecturer are to get £500 rewards each for tackling a violent drunken passenger on a York-bound GNER train.

Ticketless traveller and "wild animal" Mark Ramsey bit ticket inspector Graeme Gilroy after erupting in foul-mouthed fury, York Crown Court heard.

"He (Ramsey) threw himself at him with his arms and legs swinging," said Chris Smith, prosecuting.

The violence terrified other passengers and one elderly passenger was knocked over.

But public-spirited passengers Lt Col Neil Russell and university lecturer Dean Sewell leapt to the guard's aid and between them the three held Ramsey on the carriage floor for ten to 15 minutes until police could arrive and arrest him.

He continued to scream obscenities and struggle after the officers arrived. Landscape gardener Ramsey, 19, of Ryburn Close, Rawcliffe, York, was jailed for 12 months. He admitted causing actual bodily harm. "On this occasion you behaved like a wild animal," Judge Robert Bartfield said.

Of Lt Col Russell and Mr Sewell, the judge said: "These two people showed a public spirit of the kind that is rarely observed today."

Understandably, eyewitnesses were reluctant to get involved in stopping violence in case they themselves should get injured or into trouble.

"But these two people showed the highest regard for their duty to other members of the public," he added.

Mr Smith said Ramsey was drunk when he boarded the train at Doncaster on May 27 with a woman, who had also been drinking, and a young child, and seemed to have been in a fight earlier. Neither adult had tickets and their behaviour prompted Mr Gilroy to call ahead for police to meet the train at York.

Initially when the inspector asked for their tickets, Ramsey paid one £10.30 fare and agreed to be billed for the other plus a £10 admin fee at his home.

But as the train neared York, Ramsey swore repeatedly at the inspector and objected to paying. Despite Mr Gilroy's attempts to calm him down, Ramsey erupted into violence.

His barrister, Diane Nixon, said he was angry that he was having to pay the fare of his twin brother's girlfriend and frustrated at being beaten up earlier that day through no fault of his.

He was remorseful for the attack.

At the time he had been rather frustrated at being beaten up earlier that day through no fault of his and at paying for the girlfriend's fare.

Ramsey's employer, Trevor Smith, said the attack was out of character as he always behaved at work impeccably and politely.

"To get people of Mark's calibre takes some doing," he said.