A Penrith man has been handed a three-year football banning order after match day violence flared on a train in front of a child.
Andrew Rowlandson, 33, of Greystoke Park Road, pleaded guilty to using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause a young female passenger alarm or distress. when he appeared at Carlisle’s Magistrates’ Court.
His criminal conduct occurred while he was on board a train heading to Carlisle from Newcastle on January 15. He was involved in fighting which broke out during the journey.
Rowlandson was made subject of a 12-month community order by magistrates who ordered him to complete 100 hours’ unpaid work. He must pay £200 compensation to the child, who was reported to have suffered nightmares after witnessing the violence.
In addition, he must serve a three-year football banning order after the court heard his offending occurred on a day when Newcastle United had hosted Watford in a Premier League game.
Magistrates concluded they were satisfied there were reasonable grounds to believe an order would help prevent violence and disorder given the level of aggression on the train and previous offending by Rowlandson for violence.
