A RAILWAY passenger who shut himself in a train carriage toilet became abusive when confronted by the train manager before making a racist remark about him, a court has heard.

But Gary Neill missed his day in court last Wednesday to answer the racially aggravated charge because police bail restrictions prevented him from travelling by train to get from his home in Hounslow to Swindon.

The 47 year old of Staines Road appeared in custody before magistrates sitting in Swindon on Monday after a warrant was issued for his arrest last week. He pleaded guilty to the incident which saw him racially abuse a Great Western Railway train manager on December 19, 2015 and also pleaded guilty to missing his day in court.

Throughout proceedings he remained standing due to being in pain when he sat down.

The court heard Neill had been travelling on the 11.30pm train from London Paddington train to Cardiff and aroused suspicions of other passengers when he spent a “considerable amount of time” locked in the train toilet.

Prosecuting, Michelle Hewitt told the court: “The train manager knocked on the door and when the defendant opened the door he became abusive using racially abusive language to the manager. He was shocked by this outburst and explained he had duties on the train to carry out.

“He said he felt scared for his safety but followed him at a distance and requested assistance at the next stop which was Swindon.”

The defendant then locked himself in another toilet further along the train and verbally abused the manager when asked to come out, although there were no racial slurs on the second occasion. Police attended, and Neill – who was drunk – was arrested.

Defending him, Esther Bisgrove told the court the train manager had wrongly assumed he didn’t have a valid train ticket for his journey to Bristol, where he was aiming to collect medication.

She said: “He was aware he was due in court and says it may well have been difficult for him to make the journey because the police imposed conditions not to enter any railway station. That prevented him coming to court.

“He found himself arrested and has spent a – probably uncomfortable – evening in the police cells.

“It will come as no surprise that he has no recollection of what happened that evening. He is alcohol dependant and first started drinking at the age of 16, although he has had various attempts to rehabilitate himself, they have been unsuccessful.”

Sentencing him, chairman of the bench Geoff Earl fined him £100 for failing to attend court, but this was deemed as spent due to his time in the cells. He was however ordered to pay £85 court costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

He further ordered Neill pay £200 in compensation to the victim.