'˜I'm disgusting when I drink' admits South Shields Metro menace

Metro menace Raymond Yhia threatened to throw a couple onto the tracks at Jarrow Metro station.

Drunken Raymond Yhia subjected shocked passengers to a barrage of booze-fuelled abuse and kicked an elderly man’s shopping cart before threatening to hurl him and his partner on to the rail line at Jarrow Metro Station.

The 32-year-old continued his “vile and abusive” actions when he boarded a train – again kicking out at the man’s shopping cart, stamping on other passengers’ feet and even rubbed another’s bald patch.

Stunned witnesses contacted police and Yhia, of Coston Drive, South Shields, admitted two counts of using threatening and abusive words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress – covering the incidents on the platform and on the train – when he appeared at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.

Addressing the court, he vowed to never drink again and said he had finally  seen sense over his alcohol issues.

Jeanette Smith, prosecuting, said: “At 5.30pm on Sunday, November 29, the defendant was at Jarrow Metro Station and appeared to be drunk or on drugs.

“He was being vile and abusive and singled out a Metro employee on the other side of the platform.

“He kicked out at an older gentleman’s trolley and then threatened him and his partner that he would throw them on the Metro line.

“When on the train he kicked the trolley again and was acting aggressively. He stamped on people’s toes and rubbed a man’s bald patch.

“He then moved towards a male sitting down on the train and removed his hat, putting it on his own head.”

Yhia was later arrested by police after being identified from CCTV footage.

He told them he believed he had been assaulted prior to the incident and had suffered a concussion.

David Forrester, defending, said; “One witness described him as having blood on his right cheek, which is consistent with his account that he couldn’t remember the incident because he  was hit on the head beforehand.

Before being sentenced, Yhia told district judge Helen Cousins he was keen to get his life back on track.

He said; “I will never drink again. I have referred myself to Neca (a body which provides treatment for alcohol abuse) to keep me off the drink.

“I’m a disgusting person when I’ve had a drink. Every offence I have carried out has been drink-related. It has taken me until the age of 32 to realise.

District Judge Cousins ordered him to pay a £200 fine.

Yhia was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a £20 victim surcharge.