Liam Cairns 35

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 A SUSPENDED jail sentence has been handed to a train passenger who exposed himself to two 17-year-old students.

Carlisle’s Rickergate court heard a disturbing account of the journey during which 33-year-old Liam Cairns behaved appallingly while drunk as he travelled on the Carlisle-bound Northern Rail train from Newcastle.

It happened on February 18.

Cairns pleaded guilty to exposure, being drunk and disorderly, and four counts of assault, including two against police officers.

The court heard that two students – a male and a female – first became aware of Cairns shortly after the train left Newcastle because he was sitting in the seat immediately behind them.

The defendant was being verbally abusive towards a group of men who were sitting opposite him, shouting and swearing at them. They eventually moved away to another seat.

A short time later, Cairns moved to the seat opposite the two students, who heard him say that he would kill 'him', though it was unclear whom this was reference to. Cairns then touched the male student’s stomach.

The female student immediately protested about this and Cairns responded by 'lightly' slapping her face with the back of his hand. Shouting and slurring his speech, Cairns then exposed himself.

He was arrested when the train arrived at Carlisle’s Citadel Railway Station, and this was when he assaulted two police officers. Cairns told police he had no recollection of the events due to being drunk.

But he did apologise for his behaviour.

He blamed his drinking that day on the anniversary of a child’s death. The court heard that Cairns, of Bairstow Street, Blackpool, had 40 offences on his criminal record, including a previous exposure.

Magistrates imposed a 12-week jail term, suspended for a year.

They said the sentence was justified because the offending was drink-fuelled, there was a similar past offence on Cairns’ record, and his teenage victims had been “physically trapped” when the defendant exposed himself.

The sentence includes up to 25 days of rehabilitation and 150 hours of unpaid work. Magistrates also ruled that Cairns will be on the Sex Offender Register for the next seven years.

He must pay £200 compensation to the female student and to one of the two police officers he assaulted.