A witness to a heated row on a Virgin train said today that a disabled man moved from a train seat into his wheelchair so he could run over the feet of a frustrated woman – after his female companion slapped another passenger in their first class carriage.
He told MailOnline: ‘Until the drama began, the disabled man was in a normal seat opposite his companion. I think he moved to the wheelchair so he could join in the assault.’
The wheelchair user had been sitting opposite a middle-aged woman – believed to be his carer or partner – on a packed service from Birmingham New Street to London Euston on Sunday, and parked his wheelchair in the baggage area across the aisle to their right.
Tensions flared when his companion pushed a man and a dark-haired woman standing between them and the wheelchair.
She shouted, ‘Get out of the aisle!’, before turning to all the passengers and calling them ‘ableists’ and ‘basta**s’ – at which point the disabled man somehow moved over to his wheelchair. The irate woman, now a suspect being sought by the police, then appeared to slap another woman, who was sitting.
A witness to a heated row on a Virgin train claimed today that a disabled man (pictured) moved from a Virgin train seat into his wheelchair so he could run over the feet of a frustrated woman – after his companion (left) slapped another passenger in their first class carriage. The eyewitness took this photo of the pair when the train stopped at Milton Keynes, Bucks. It wasn’t the witness’s stop but he made sure fellow passengers kept the doors open while a train guard was summoned to the scene
After the dark-haired woman told the suspect to ‘Shut your f**king mouth’, the wheelchair user, looking uneasy, started turning his wheelchair around, to which the woman screamed, ‘You are rolling over my feet!’.
The disabled man then said: ‘I’m trying to turn around!’
The eyewitness told MailOnline: ‘It was hard to understand. The middle-aged woman felt the two people standing in the aisle were standing too close to her.
‘Maybe she thought that space was a disabled area – or maybe she and her companion had had other negative experiences. They seemed to use the disability issue as a cover to have a bloody good go at everybody.’
He added: ‘Until the drama began, the disabled man was in a normal seat opposite his companion. I think he moved to the wheelchair so he could join in the assault, quite frankly.
‘I can’t remember if he made his own way to it or if he was somehow transferred there. And the second after he had sat in it, he ran the wheelchair over the woman’s feet.’
The middle-aged woman (standing, left, next to the wheelchair user) berates passengers sitting down on a Virgin train on Sunday – calling them ‘ableists’ and ‘bast**ds’. An eyewitness told MailOnline: ‘Until the drama began, the disabled man was in a normal seat opposite his companion. I think he moved to the wheelchair so he could join in the assault, quite frankly’. During the row, he rolls over the feet of the dark-haired woman standing directly in front of him, and says, ‘I’m just trying to turn around’
Footage of the incident shows the moment the suspect ‘slaps’ the woman, and also the wheelchair user looking on uncomfortably with his head in his hands.
At one point he says to the dark-haired woman: ‘So great with your attitude. I am a human being, you know.’ He then adds, ‘Patronising.’
The suspect, who is standing at the front of the carriage, with the wheelchair user to her side, can be heard saying: ‘Look at all of them. Look at all of them. Ableists and bast**ds.’
The alleged victim – a young woman sitting down just behind the man in the wheelchair – is seen talking to her.
Suddenly, the suspect lunges towards her and a loud whack can be heard as the seated woman tries to put her arm up to defend herself.
One shocked witness says: ‘Whoa, whoa.’ A third woman adds: ‘Don’t touch people.’
At this point, a man’s voice is heard, saying: ‘Right, the police are being called.’
Another says: ‘Someone call British Transport Police. The police will be waiting at the next station.’
The irate woman appears to hit a woman, sitting down just behind the man in the wheelchair, who looks on uncomfortably. The eyewitness told MailOnline: ‘They seemed to use the disability issue as a cover to have a bloody good go at everybody’
The disagreement took place on the packed service from Birmingham New Street to London Euston. Above, the seated woman tries to talk to the suspect, who allegedly slaps her moments later
While this is going on, the man in the wheelchair continues to fidget and occasionally scratches his neck and head.
Meanwhile, another jokingly tells the suspect: ‘Just sit down and have a cup of tea or something.’
But the third female passenger then gets more involved.
‘No one is being abused’ she says ‘You need to calm down. Your friend wasn’t trying to access that spot at that time’ – in reference to the seat where the woman was allegedly hit.
She then says to the suspect: ‘Shut your f**king mouth. You touch anyone else and I swear to God I’ll lose it. You are touching innocent people. You’ve upset that poor girl.’
The dark-haired woman (standing in front of the wheelchair user) also gets involved in the argument, telling the suspect: ‘You are touching innocent people. You’ve upset that poor girl.’ The wheelchair user then says to the dark-haired woman, ‘I am a human being, you know’
She then starts talking to the wheelchair user and says: ‘Get off me.’
He replies: ‘I’m trying to turn around.’ She responds: ‘You are rolling your wheelchair over my feet.’
Another passenger replies: ‘Can we all just calm down a bit.’
The third woman then tells the suspect: ‘You are a disgrace, you are a disgrace. I don’t lose it very easily, but you’ve made me lose it.’
The man in the wheelchair then says: ‘I am a human being you know.’
Another customer can be heard on his mobile reporting an ‘assault’ to the police.
All the passengers are then forced to sit or stand in awkward silence.
Stunned onlookers called the police after witnessing the ugly scenes, which occurred on the 6:10pm Virgin Train service.
The suspect got off at about 7pm at Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
A Virgin Trains spokesman said: ‘We’re aware of the incident and have referred to the British Transport Police.’
A BTP spokesman said: ‘We received a report at 7pm on May 12 of an assault on a Euston-bound train.
‘A woman is reported to have attacked another woman in the first class carriage. The suspect then left the train when it arrived at Milton Keynes Central.
‘Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to contact BTP.’