Drunken football mob triggers mayhem on busy train - watch it unfold on video

VIOLENCE erupted on a crowded train when drunken Sheffield Wednesday fans and their friends attacked stag do revellers after discovering they were Leeds supporters, sending passengers scrambling over seats to safety.

Horrified passengers had to flee, including families with young children, as the punches and blood flew.

The mayhem spread into three carriages of the TransPennine express train from York to Manchester Airport on July 11 last year as the group pursued their targets even as one member of train staff bravely tried to block their way with his food trolley and the conductor locked carriage doors.

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After ten minutes of pandemonium the perpetrators used emergency levers to force the doors open and escape when the train pulled into Garforth station in Leeds where the conductor planned to wait for the police.

Charlotte Worsley, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday several were arrested when a bus from Garforth was stopped on the A64, two were picked up in Garforth itself and three who got away in a taxi were later arrested by British Transport police having been identified from CCTV because of their football connection.

Jailing a group of men for between 18 months and four years for violent disorder, Judge Paul Hoffman said they had acted like a pack with a shared intent to "beat up the other side", dismissing suggestions it was sparked by a disputes over seats.

"This is quite the worst and ugliest incident of mob violence on a train that I personally have ever had to deal with."

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Jailing Shaun Jones for four years the judge said he had already had a record for violence and bore a heavy responsibility for instigating the trouble.

The judge said the others then followed him dutifully down the train where the violence was started by Dominic Mullan.

Miss Worsley said the victims had enjoyed a friend's stag celebrations at York Races and were in good humour when they had the misfortune to sit near Jones, whose group had been drinking in the city during the day and had been ejected from some bars for their behaviour. After Jones told them about the "Leeds lads" the group followed him back to them and Mullan sparked the violence by punching one of them.

Jones, 37 of Dodworth Road, Town End, Barnsley, and Mullan, 22 of Halifax Road, Grenoside, Sheffield, were each jailed for four years. Sam Atkinson, 21, of Cotswold Road, Hillsborough, was sentenced to three years, while Gavin Hodgson, 22, of School Road, High Green, Lee Ardron, 22, of Broad Ing Crescent, Burncross, Gavin Garton, 19 of Langsett Grove, Langsett, all Sheffield, were each jailed for two and a half years.

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Daniel Hewitt, 20 of Harris Road, Hillsborough, and Stephen Hogan, 23, of Warren Gardens, Chapeltown, both Sheffield, were each jailed for two years.

Thomas Wilkinson, 20, of Stanley Road, Burncross, Jack Culyer, 20, of Ironstone Crescent, Robert Wharam, 20, of Chiltern Road, and Jordan Wasden, 19, of Wood Lane, all Sheffield, got 18 months.

British Transport Police Det Sergeant Granville Sellers said: "It was a terrifying ordeal for the large number of passengers and staff."