Homeless Marc Simmons who is 33 has been jailed for 60 Days after police found him asleep on a busy railway line which delayed a Eurostar train for 45 minutes. Marc was discovered lying just over a metre away from the live rail on Lenham Bridge at 11.30am yesterday morning, and it’s said that he had attempted to walk from Maidstone to Folkestone in a bid to scavenge unwanted food thrown out by shops.

Maidstone magistrates heard his story this morning and it all started when he was released from prison in Lincoln just six days ago and since then he has struggled to find food and shelter.

It’s said that Marc’s actions caused serious delays to a Eurostar train until he was found 45 minutes later, resulting in a £24,800 fine which service provider London and Continental Railways will have to stump up.

Tom Stevens who was the Chair of the bench said that “Your actions caused danger to others, you caused disruption and inconvenience to Eurostar and as a result we are going to send you to prison for 60 days because there is no other appropriate way to deal with an offence of this nature.”

Marc told magistrates he often walked on railway tracks as a teenager and only ever got a slap on the wrist from police. He told them he was sorry for delaying the Eurostar train, saying he was not aware of the trouble his actions would cause.

I bet that he is glad that he has a place to stay now and at least he will be feed even though it is jail.

Do you think that the prisons should make sure that they have somewhere to go once they leave them even if it is just a hostel for a while to prevent things like this happening?

source