British Transport Police (BTP) officers are appealing for witnesses after unruly behaviour by a group of Aston Villa football fans caused a train to be taken out of service on Wednesday 3 August.
Officers said the incident took place on board a CrossCountry service as the supporters returned from watching a pre-season friendly between their club and Derby County that evening.
PC Leighton Pulling, one of the investigating officers, said officers received reports of fans causing a disturbance on the service at 11.27pm.
“The train manager on board the service was walking through the train when she saw that considerable damage had been caused to carriage in which a number of Villa fans were travelling in,” PC Pulling said.
“Eighteen tray tables were ripped from the backs of seats and seat coverings were also damaged or ripped. A number of lights were also smashed in the vestibule end of the carriage.
“The train manager said the carriage was in order when the train picked the football fans up at Derby rail station.
“No one was seen to cause the damage as the train travelled between Derby and Birmingham New Street stations and no one admitted to causing it.”
BTP officers took the details of fans in the carriage when the train arrived at Birmingham and are now liaising with Aston Villa FC to establish whether anyone who is subsequently identified as being involved in causing the damage is a season ticket holder.
The damage meant the train had to be taken out of service for 24 hours while repairs took place, causing inconvenience to passengers and to train operator, CrossCountry.
Andy Cooper, CrossCountry managing director, said:
“Due to the amount of damage suffered, the unit had to be taken out of traffic and the following day, scenes of crime officers visited the Central Rivers depot to dust for fingerprints and photograph the damage.
“CrossCountry is co-operating fully with BTP to find those responsible, and will press charges where possible.
“Thanks to the close work between the CrossCountry fleet team and Bombardier, repairs were carried out within 24 hours, allowing the set to return to traffic.”
BTP is now calling for anyone with information about those responsible to come forward.
“The actions of a minority risk spoiling things for other fans in the future. We believe the train was busy at the time and that these incidents took place in front of a number of other passengers – and law-abiding Villa fans – on board,” PC Pulling said
“The majority of football fans are law-abiding citizens but there are a minority who, by virtue of their behaviour, bring the game and the notion of being a supporter into disrepute.
“I would appeal to anyone with any information about this incident, or who knows the identity of anyone involved, to talk to us.”
Anyone with information about the incident should contact BTP on Freefone 0800 40 50 40, quoting incident number B6/WWA of 12/08/11 or call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
