THAT’S OUT OF LINE
Teen yobs who destroyed £30k of rail models given £500 fines
THREE teenagers who destroyed a cherished £30,000 model railway exhibition were ordered to pay just £500 each yesterday – and the bill will be met by their parents.
The yobs, all now 16, went on a drunken rampage after breaking into a school sports hall in Stamford, Lincolnshire. They destroyed decades of painstaking work by members of a model railway society, smashing up locomotives and tracks due to go on public display.
Images of the carnage sparked national outrage, with wellwishers – including singer Rod Stewart – and more than £100,000 was donated to help restore the collection.
Yet despite demolishing the ‘life’s work’ of modelling enthusiasts, the teenagers walked free from Lincoln Youth Court.
The trio admitted criminal damage and were ordered to undertake a 12-month referral order. They were also told to each pay £500 compensation to Market Deeping Model Railway Club plus £85 prosecution costs and a £20 victim surcharge.
Magistrates were told the financial penalties will be met by their parents as none of the teenagers has any income.
A fourth 16-year- old admitted criminal damage and will be sentenced next month. He was not accompanied at court by a parent or guardian.
The court was told the four teenagers broke into Stamford Welland Academy sports hall in the historic Lincolnshire town in May.
They claimed they were locked out and wanted to play football after drinking vodka to celebrate the end of lessons before their GCSEs.
Magistrates heard they caused £30,000 of damage by smashing up hand-built locomotives and tracks.
One exhibit had taken 36 years to complete and the wanton destruction left their creators in tears. Another of the wrecked displays was made by a nine-year-old boy.
Prosecutor Shelley Wilson said the teenagers kicked the hall fire doors open in the early hours of the morning.
They then trashed the displays set out for MDRC’s annual exhibition which was due to open a few hours later. Exhibitors who arrived at 7.30am to put the finishing touches to their displays were reduced to tears at seeing years of hard work destroyed.
The annual event – which had been expected to attract 400 visitors – was cancelled for the first time in more than 30 years.
John Kneesworth, of the St Neots Model Railway Club which had a display at the event, said one of the group’s displays took ten years to build and his own collection of locomotives and wagons was smashed.
‘It is absolutely impossible to quantify the damage,’ he added. ‘I spent 20 to 25 years building up my collection. It was all made by me and unique.
‘I’m truly shocked at what happened. This was years of work and effort. I cannot understand why anyone would do this. It is devastating.’
William Sowerby, of the Market Deeping club, said: ‘ Not one display was still standing. Everything was destroyed. Smashed and thrown across the room.
‘I could not believe what I had seen. One of the displays took 36 years to build.’
The teenagers, who all apologised for their actions in court, said they had planned to sleep in the sports hall after playing football, after finding themselves locked out of the house they had been due to stay at.
Linford Fuller, representing one of the four, said: ‘The parties were in drink. Had they been sober, different choices would have been made.’
Magistrate John Lock said the compensation was a gesture and told the defendants that ‘the hurt can never be compensated for’. He added: ‘In more than 20 years on the bench I cannot recall a case of such mindless, wanton destruction. It beggars belief.’