A TRAIN had to be brought to a stop when a policeman and solicitor assaulted and racially abused its driver, a court heard yesterday.

The claim was made at Worcester Crown Court on day one of the trial of policeman Steven Hughes, 29, of North Street, Abergavenny and solicitor Stephen Keith Hancock, 33, of Alexandra Street, Ebbw Vale.

The two are accused of using threatening behaviour towards train driver Stuart Pritchard and endangering the safety of passengers travelling on a railway; racially aggravated common assault against Mr Pritchard; and using racially aggravated threatening words and behaviour towards him, on November 11, 2000.

Both men deny all the offences.

Opening the prosecution case, Philip Matthews said the pair committed the alleged offences after boarding the 21.50 Wales & West service at Cardiff to Hereford, following the international rugby match between Wales and Samoa.

Giving evidence, train driver Stuart Pritchard said he was forced to bring the train to an emergency stop on its way to Hereford from Abergavenny station. Mr Pritchard, from Cardiff, said: "I heard a couple of voices saying 'Hey driver, can you stop the train, the doors never opened at Abergavenny'. I replied I couldn't until we got to Hereford."

He said they (Hancock and Hughes) started "banging and kicking the door, which I could see was moving...they shouted 'you lazy nigger' and 'stupid Paki' which was quite awful." Mr Pritchard, who is white, added: "One of the gentlemen said he was a solicitor and he would see I got sacked.

"The other said he was a police officer and 'we have ways of finding people' which I found unacceptable."

Mr Pritchard said he suffered a small cut to the back of his head as he guarded the door being kicked by the defendants - which forms the assault charge.

The men, he said continued their antics as the train pulled in to Hereford train station where they were met by West Mercia police officers.

Asked how he felt during the journey Mr Pritchard said: "I felt very threatened. At the time I tried to switch off and act in a professional manner to bring the train in safe for the passengers."

The case is proceeding.