What a shower!
Rail staff face police probe after soaking homeless man with bucket of dirty water
THREE rail workers were being investigated for common assault last night after a homeless man was soaked with dirty soapy water.
They were caught on camera arguing with the man as he lay on the pavement against the front of a railway station.
When he did not move, one of two uniformed rail workers poured a bucket of water on to the ground next to him. A third man is said to have watched and failed to intervene. The water soaked the homeless man’s legs and lower back, as the rail worker said: ‘It smells. You’ve been here all morning. Get up and go.’
Their actions, filmed by a passenger and posted on social media, sparked a furious backlash.
The rail staff at Sutton station in South-West London had argued that the man had been causing problems for them before the incident on Sunday. Last night Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said: ‘This shocking act shows a complete lack of empathy towards someone who is vulnerable.’ Southern Rail announced three men had been suspended and British Transport Police said officers were investigating whether an assault had been committed. Locals said the homeless man has been sleeping outside the station for at least 18 months. He returned yesterday before he was taken away in an ambulance.
One onlooker said his trousers appeared to have been bleached by the bucket of cleaning fluid – and claimed that his skin may
have The woman been burned who filmed by the the bleach. original incident and posted it on social media, Heidi-Liv Gravesen, a Dane living in London, claimed that the staff hit him with a mop and started soaking him with water before she started filming.
Miss Gravesen wrote on Facebook: ‘This is how Southern staff treat another human being in Sutton. It was horrible. What has the world come to when we treat each other like that?’
Southern has been condemned by commuters for its poor service. After the video of the incident was sent to the company an official promised to take action.
Last night Angie Doll of Southern Railway Angie Doll apologised and added: ‘ We take this incident extremely seriously.’ British Transport Police confirmed it had been called to the station earlier about an ‘aggressive male’ at the station.