A SEXIST lout has been jailed for assaulting a lone woman passenger on a late-night Leeds to York train.

Kirsten Mercer, prosecuting, said Jason William Flanagan, 33, made himself so unpleasant by striking up a conversation with the 21-year-old woman, she moved seats to be next to a group of other women.

But he called her self-centred and claimed he was the victim of a "feminist attack" before kicking phones out of her hand and the hand of another woman.

Then he hit the first woman repeatedly over the head for half a minute.

Flanagan was on a suspended prison sentence at the time for having indecent images of children, York Crown Court heard.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, said it was an "very unpleasant, horrendous assault of a woman" that had been preceded by "unpleasant sexist remarks".

"It was a sustained assault with blow after blow after blow raining down", he said.

He strongly criticised the CPS for "grossly undercharging" the case.

Flanagan pleaded guilty to two assaults,for which the maximum sentence is six months. The judge said the charge should have been affray for which the maximum sentence is three years.

Flanagan, formerly of Huntington, York, and now of Alma Square, Scarborough, was jailed for seven months including three months from the suspended prison sentence he received for two offences of downloading indecent images of children in March 2018.

For him, Graham Parkin said there were two sides to him.

In December 2017, when homeless and short of money, he had found an expensive guitar in the street had located its owner and returned it.

He had mental health problems and had stopped drinking.

Ms Mercer said Flanagan was drunk when the 21-year-old woman got on the 2am York service at Leeds on July 1 last year.

When she moved because he made her feel uncomfortable, he stood up and starting filming her.

The women started filming him, he smacked a phone out of the first woman's hand and when she picked it up, kicked it out of her hand and kicked another phone out of the second woman's hand.

She and other passengers contacted police and Flanagan was arrested on the train's arrival at York.