Rail Staff Assaults
British Transport Police (BTP) detectives are calling on members of the public to help them name a number of people wanted for staff assaults in Kent and East Sussex.
As part of their appeal, officers have released CCTV images of five men they want to speak to in connection with the incidents.
Detective Sergeant Leigh Marshall said: "Officers investigating each of these cases have followed multiple avenues of enquiry and circulated these images on police intelligence systems to try and get names for these men, but to no avail so far.
"We’re asking for help from members of the public to help us identify them. If you know any of these five men and can tell us who they are, we want to hear from you."
Image 1 - Strood
Officers want to talk to the man in image 1 after he threatened to headbutt and stab the driver of a Strood to Paddock Wood service around 7.30am on Sunday, 14 August 2011.
The man approached the driver’s cab window and began abusing him. When the driver closed the window the man continued to shout at him and punch the window before threatening to stab the driver.
Image 2 - Whitstable
Image 2 shows a man suspected of punching a member of staff in the face following a verbal altercation at Whitstable rail station around 7.25pm on Monday, 1 August 2011.
Image 3 - St Leonards Warrior Square
The man in image 3 is suspected of verbally abusing and then assaulting a conductor, grabbing and twisting his wrist, on a train pulling into St Leonards Warrior Square station around 8.50am on Sunday, 22 May 2011.
Images 4 and 5 – Rainham
Images 4 and 5 show two men officers want to speak to after a conductor was assaulted at Rainham rail station on Saturday, 16 April 2011.
The conductor was checking tickets on a service which had just left Gillingham around 9.45am and came across the two men in the images, who did not have valid tickets to travel. When the conductor asked them to buy tickets one of them threatened him, with the other slapping him around the head when they left the train at Rainham, the next stop.
DS Marshall added: “It isn’t clear why the men in each of these cases felt they had the right to attack people who were simply trying to do their jobs, but we’ll do all we can to track them down.
“Attacks like this are thankfully rare across Kent and East Sussex but we treat them very seriously. Everyone has the right to go to work and carry out their duty without fear of being attacked.
“The images are good quality and I’m confident someone will recognise these men and be able to tell us who they are.”
Anyone with any information about the incidents or who recognises anyone pictured in the CCTV images should contact British Transport Police on Freefone 0800 40 50 40 quoting reference B12/LSA of 29/11/11, quoting the image number.