Bare knuckle boxer who gloated online after 'appalling' attack on train conductor handed a six year sentence

Stephen Weldon looked stunned as Judge Alistair Devlin ordered that the 35-year-old will serve three years behind bars and a further three years under supervised licence conditions.

During his damning sentencing remarks, the judge told Antrim Crown Court it was with “some hesitation” that he was not assessing Weldon as a dangerous offender given his history of violence but in describing the attack itself as a “truly appalling… vicious and violent, unprovoked attack, upon an innocent man,” he added that Weldon then proceeded to take a triumphalist video of himself declaring to other shocked and terrified passengers that the conductor “got his arse whipped” and further that “I run this train now!”

“If that wasn't already bad enough, with an almost unbelievable level of supreme inhumanity and arrogance, this defendant then chose to post that video by means of so-called social media to his Facebook page under the heading, “I run this train now,” said Judge Devlin.

The judge told the heavily tattooed Weldon his supposed regret was, in his assessment, “nothing more than a veneer of remorse” and while he had enquired as to the welfare of his victim “that stands in very stark contrast to the grossly aggressive and triumphalist attitude which the defendant displayed on the video taken by him…in order to effectively gloat and glorify in his own use of gratuitous violence.”

At an earlier hearing champion bareknuckle boxer Weldon, from Inniscarn Drive in the Rathcoole estate, admitted attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm with intent as well as offences of damaging the victim’s own mobile phone, a cash bag and a mobile phone which belonged to Translink, arising from the same incident on 8 May last year.

Outlining the facts of the case today Judge Devlin told the court it was just after 9am when the police were alerted to the incident at the Magheramorne halt just outside Larne after the conductor had been punched, kicked and physically dragged off the train.

As the train made its way from Belfast to Larne the conductor spotted Weldon using a vape and told him that he would have to get off at the next stop.

Weldon asked how he could get to work and the conductor told him there might be a bus service or that he could walk to Larne but in any event, the two men “fist bumped” and the train continued on its journey.

While the train remained at Larne station, the victim noticed there was a charger for the vaping device so when the train arrived back at the Magheramorne halt, he went to hand it back to Weldon but instead of taking it, Weldon punched him and then “violently pushed the victim back into the interior of the train carriage” where he landed multiple kicks and punches to the conductor’s head and body.

Judge Devlin said that as the train sat stationary, Weldon proceeded to trail his victim out of the train and onto the platform where he “started once again, punching and kicking the victim” to his face and head.

“Whilst the unfortunate victim lay defenceless on the ground, the defendant struck him six or seven times with both his fists and also with his feet,” said the judge adding that after the victim managed to momentarily overbalance his assailant, he ran through the train to the safety of the driver’s cab “shouting for passengers to call the police.”

“The defendant then proceeded to record a video on his mobile phone as he re-entered and then calmly walked up the inside of the train, announcing to the passengers in a loud voice, ‘hello folks, I'm sorry for the hold up’.”

Weldon also stated: “The guy that was running the train was acting tough and got his arse whipped. That's why there's a hold up. Sorry, yeah, Hope you have a good day. Sorry about that. God bless.”

Weldon was arrested at the train halt and during police questioning he conceded that faced with a 90 minute walk to get to work and fearing that he would lose the job he had only just started, “he saw red.”

He admitted that he dragged the conductor off the train and accepted striking him but “denied assaulting him further” and as well as claiming that conductor’s “attitude wasn’t right” he told police his victim “was just trying to be the alpha male and that he had wanted to be more alpha male than the victim.”

The conductor was taken to hospital and although doctors suspected he had sustained a fractured jaw, an x-ray showed that while badly swollen there was no fracture but he had also sustained five chipped teeth as well as bruising and abrasions.

Despite Weldon’s claims, Judge Devlin said the “high quality video” of the incident disproved his “wholly inaccurate and misleading” account of the attack which had a litany of aggravating features including that it was a sustained and unprovoked attack on a public servant.

The judge said that in addition, Weldon had “displayed a complete disregard for the likely consequences of his actions,” and he had previous convictions for assault both in NI and in Preston where he had been living.

The Judge said some passengers could be seen on the CCTV footage fleeing in terror out through the station from the train adding that the impact on the victim and his family was a further aggravating feature because as well as the physical and ongoing psychological consequences, he had to take a pay cut to move jobs.

Quoting from the Victim Impact Statement, the judge outlined how the victim stated: “My day-to-day life has been altered because of this ordeal as well as my professional career. I was simply carrying out my job as a train conductor and never thought I would be subject to such an attack on my person.”

In mitigation the judge said while Weldon had entered guilty pleas they came against a background of limited cooperation, “an attempt by the defendant to actually blame the victim” as well as “completely overwhelming” video evidence.

Describing it as a “disgraceful attack,” the judge imposed a six year sentence to be split 50/50 between custody and licence.