Crook paralysed rail route in stand-off

A CAREER criminal has been jailed for causing a £2 million stand-off which paralysed the main rail route from Birmingham to London.

Saul Linton spent four hours on top of a metal cage above a bridge at Rugby station on June 30 last year.

Power to the rail lines was cut, forcing the total or partial cancellation of 43 trains, Warwick Crown Court heard.

Paramedics were called to a medical emergency on one of the affected trains and compensation payments for the disruption totalled £2 million. The stand-off only ended when firefighters cut a hole in the cage and Linton climbed through, the court was told.

The incident happened just four months after Linton sprayed police officers with illegal CS gas when they went to his home to arrest someone else.

And after the stand-off he staged a roof-top protest, hurling chunks of mortar at the police.

Linton, 25, of Selside, Brownsover, Rugby, was jailed for four years and 11 months after pleading guilty to a string of offences. They included possessing a prohibited firearm, using a firearm with intent to resist arrest, assaulting police officers, obstructing the railway, causing a public nuisance, and theft.

Katie Fox, prosecuting, said Linton told police he was “staging a protest” at the station. He was bailed, and in November he stole a dirt track bike after pushing one of the owner’s friends off it.

And on November 7 he climbed onto the roof of a terraced house in Mill Road, opposite Rugby police station, and began shouting and refusing to come down.

Twelve officers were needed to keep the road clear and to divert traffic as Linton dislodged the chimney and hurled lumps of mortar at them. He finally came down of his own accord after four hours.

Caroline Harris, defending, said: “He describes himself as a career criminal. And he wants to stop. He says this time custody is going to make or break him.”

She said the incidents on the railway bridge and the roof were reactions to difficulties Linton was having following his decision to stop drinking.

Jailing Linton, the judge said the use of the CS gas on the officers was the most serious offence, for which he jailed Linton for three years and nine months.

“You were bailed, and on bail you carried out attention-seeking behaviour at Rugby railway station.

“Plainly this was planned, and plainly it was intended to cause maximum disruption.”

>