Distressed man held up railway for four hours

Conan Lucas (40), of Jennings Close, Eastwood, also known as Doggie Dogg, walked onto a railway line in August last year and stopped a train.

Lucas - who once barricaded himself into Rotherham Town Hall - caused a Northern train to stop at 10.30pm on the night of the offence.

Mr Paul O’Shea, prosecuting at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, said: “The engine driver saw him, brought his vehicle to a complete stop and then very sensibly, given this defendant’s behaviour, got off his engine and used the standard red lights to stop any engine coming the other direction.

“The police were called, he was detained by officers, and, such was his behaviour, they detained him under the Mental Health Act.

“He was behaving in a very bizarre fashion.”

Lucas held the railway up for almost four hours, costing the network an estimated £10,000. 

He was taken to Swallownest Court mental health unit.

“He wasn’t there for very long because they deemed it was a drug-induced psychosis,” Mr O’Shea said.

In February, he moved to Elliot Court, Rotherham, where he attempted to set fire to his sheltered accommodation multiple times by leaving his oven and hob on.

“On May 29 he left the oven and hob on with a plate of solidified fat on top of it and the fat melted,” Mr O’Shea said.

“That was the final straw and he was arrested on May 30.”

Lucas admitted one count of obstructing an engine or carriage using a railway and one count of criminal damage at an earlier hearing.

He has previous convictions for criminal damage and theft offences, including a 12-month community order for criminal damage in 2014 after barricading himself inside the Town Hall.

Mitigating, Mr Michael Cane-Soothill said Lucas had a history of psychological illnesses and had been diagnosed as schizophrenic.

“This [the train incident] wasn’t a suicide attempt but was something else,” Mr Cane-Soothill said.

“He worked when he was younger but has not worked for many years.

“He had a partner and a child but 15 or 16 years ago his partner died which put even more strain on him.

“It’s thanks to his mother and father’s support that he doesn’t stay where he is [in prison].”

Judge Graham Reeds sentenced Lucas to seven months in prison, however, he was due to be released immediately because he had served five-and-a-half months in custody, longer than the three-and-a-half months he would have been required to serve.

Judge Reeds said: “You are on occasions a petty offender but on other occasions you stay out of trouble.

“By May this year you had started to take steps to deliberately damage Elliot Court as retribution for the warnings you had been given for your conduct.”