Man who held up trains in £1m-plus stunt sent to jail
DRUG USER WENT ON TO COMMIT TWO KNIFEPOINT SHOP ROBBERIES
A PROTESTER who brought a main Leicester railway line to a halt when he climbed on to a gantry for a halfday stand-off with police has been jailed.
Levi Muttock, who went on to commit two armed robberies in supermarkets, was said to have been furious about being accused of a sex offence – which was later discontinued – and thought police were not investigating the matter thoroughly enough when he climbed the gantry in just after Christmas 2020.
Feeling “angry and depressed”, he climbed on to the structure above the main Leicester to London line, near Knighton Lane East, at 8.25am on December 29.
Nicholas Bleaney, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court that two express trains had been halted by the time the police arrived at 8.48am.
It caused ongoing major disruption to train services as he refused to come down for six hours during a stand-off.
Shortly after 1.30pm, a goods train container was positioned under the gantry with a ladder on it to help him down.
Muttock, 32, climbed on to the train but then threw the ladder aside and still refused to comply with negotiators concerned for his safety.
He eventually came down at 2.20pm and was arrested.
The incident affected a huge number of passengers, cost Network Rail more than £1 million and left other train companies several thousand pounds out of pocket.
Muttock, formerly of Border Drive, Beaumont Leys, Leicester, admitted committing an unlawful act on the railway with intent to cause damage.
After his arrest and bail, he then went on to rob two supermarkets in 2021.
Muttock burst into a Lidl, in Loughborough Road, Belgrave, on March 6, when he threatened staff at knifepoint and made off with £2,940 from the safe.
He then went on to rob a Spar store in Broom Leys Road, Coalville, again with a knife, a week later where he and Rhys Chan threatened staff with knives and made off with cigarettes, alcohol and £123 in cash.
Employees at both supermarkets told police they were frightened they would be stabbed if they did not hand over the cash.
Muttock told victims in Lidl his “boys” were outside, although he was described by the manager as shaking and acting nervously during the raid.
Several female employees in the Spar shop were faced by both masked defendants and one had a knife held close to her neck.
The victims were all distressed and shaken up afterwards and one woman took long-term sick leave.
A jury found Muttock guilty of armed robbery and possessing a bladed article over the raid in Lidl, while he was also convicted of the Spar raid at a different trial.
Co-accused, Chan, 29, of Cottage Close, Ratby, pleaded guilty to taking part in the Spar robbery and possessing a bladed article.
Lynette McClement, mitigating for Muttock, and John O’Higgins, for Chan, said both defendants had a history of class A drug use.
Muttock was said to have committed the robberies because he had lost his job and was desperate to provide financial support for his partner and their baby.
His barrister said he was outraged after being falsely accused of a sex offence, that led to him considering suicide when he climbed on to the railway gantry.
She said Muttock told officers at the time he had been accused of something “I didn’t do”.
Ms McClement said: “He had no conception of the level of disruption.”
Chan, a father-of-two, was said to have since kicked his long-term drug addiction, changed his life for the better and qualified for onethird reduction on his sentence because of his early guilty plea.
Muttock was jailed for seven years and four months. Chan was jailed for three years and 10 months.