Police release footage of ‘relentless’ bottle attack on train

British Transport Police have released CCTV footage of the moment a drunk passenger attacked two men with a bottle on a ScotRail train, following his conviction for attempted murder and serious assault.

Thomas Craig, 48, of East Renfrewshire, carried out the attack after getting into a “minor disagreement” with two other men on a train from Glasgow to Dundee on February 16 last year.

Police said within 10 minutes of the conversation starting, Craig had hurled an insult at one of his victims, before jumping from his seat and hitting him twice over the head with a glass bottle.

The victim ran away through the train carriage but Craig pursued him and “relentlessly” struck him with the bottle until it smashed, leaving Craig holding the bottle’s broken neck.

When the victim’s friend tried to intervene, Craig turned and punched him seven times, before twice thrusting the broken neck of the bottle into his chest.

Craig then returned to his seat, throwing the neck of the bottle towards where the two men had been sitting and taking off his blood-soaked jumper and replacing it with a clean hoodie from his belongings.

He also picked up one of his victims’ mobile phones and pocketed it.

Police and paramedics met the train at Larbert railway station, where both victims were given urgent treatment and rushed to hospital, and Craig was arrested.

Police said the injuries to Craig’s second victim were so severe that he was placed in intensive care, having suffered a stab wound to the chest, a collapsed lung and a severed artery that resulted in him losing about 15% of his blood.

Craig was found guilty of attempted murder and serious assault at the High Court in Glasgow on November 28.

BTP Detective Inspector Marc Francey said: “Craig acted in a truly despicable manner, violently and relentlessly attacking two men over a minor disagreement and causing countless passengers on the train to panic.

“His indiscriminate and thuggish actions could have resulted in far more severe consequences, both for his victims and for himself. It is thanks only to luck and to the lifesaving work of the paramedics that Craig hasn’t been found guilty of something far worse.

“I hope this verdict brings a measure of closure to the victims after enduring such a brutal attack.

“Violence on the railway is utterly unacceptable and we will relentlessly pursue offenders like Craig to ensure they face justice.”

Craig is due to be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on January 12.