A commuter who attacked Transport for London staff in a bout of Tube rage after being asked to step back from the edge of a platform is facing jail.
Scott O’Brien, 44, reacted angrily when Tube worker Gustavo Gonzalez asked him to stand behind the yellow line at Baker Street station.
Westminster magistrates heard O’Brien hit Mr Gonzalez over the head with a rolled-up newspaper and then hurled homophobic abuse at him.
He pushed Kaleem Naeem, a colleague who tried to intervene, in the chest and continued to shout aggressive abuse. “The gentleman was taking the mick out of me over the Tannoy. Is that allowed?” O’Brien told the court.
“I went back to speak to him, yes. I tapped him with a newspaper. I did it in a jokey way.”
O’Brien admitted assaulting Mr Gonzalez in the incident on September 7, but denied attacking Mr Naeem. Finding him guilty, magistrate Jay Cheyne told O’Brien: “You could have got on the train and left. Instead you remained and prolonged the situation.”
The magistrate said he used “threatening and abusive words to both London Underground workers and used aggressive and homophobic language towards Mr Gonzalez.”
O’Brien, from Wormley, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to assault by beating on Mr Gonzalez. He denied but was convicted of assaulting Mr Naeem and using threatening words.
O’Brien was freed on bail until a sentencing hearing on December 18.
