A RAIL passenger who walked across the live railway lines at York Railway Station has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Marcus Alan King's action not only put himself at risk but could have delayed other passengers, said district judge Adrian Lower.

“What you did was entirely hair-brained in terms of crossing the tracks from Platform 5 to Platform 3,” he told King.

Trains are stopped whenever someone is on the line.

Safety signs in the station ban passengers from walking on the track and railway staff have to have special permission to do so.

Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, said King also hit a railway supervisor who, on seeing his actions, ordered him out of the station and told him he would be unable to travel further.

King is now banned from York Railway Station unless he has a valid rail ticket for the next year.

He must also pay £150 compensation to the railway employee and is subject to a 12-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months.

King, 31, of Trefoil Drive, Killinghall north of Harrogate, pleaded guilty at York Magistrates Court to trespassing on the railway and assault.

For King, Tahir Mahmood said: “On that particular day, he went overboard as far as the consumption of alcohol (is concerned)”.

King wanted to apologise for his actions.

Ms Tyrer said in the early hours of February 15, the LNER employee saw King climb down from Platform 5, cross the live East Coast mainline tracks and climb onto Platform 3.

King claimed he had needed to get to the men’s toilets on Platform 3 to collect his belongings. Police had to escort him out of the station because he refused to go.