A PARK North man who mistakenly got a train to Wales before taking drugs with a busker and climbing onto a train station roof to moon at staff has narrowly escaped being sent to prison.

Joseph Green, 26, had been drinking heavily when he accidentally ended up in Swansea on May 17.

Too late to get a return train, he spent the night at the home of a busker, taking diazepam, before returning to the station at 7.35am.

“The defendant arrived at the train station drinking from a can of Carlsberg, already incoherent and slurring his speech,” said Tessa Hingston, prosecuting at Swindon Crown Court.

“Train manager Jason Holloway tried to walk him to the booking office, as he indicated he wanted to travel to Newbury. The defendant kept swearing and after a short while returned, saying ‘f*** that, I ain’t paying that’. A member of staff tried remonstrating with him and said he should have coffee to sober up.

“They soon became aware he had climbed onto the roof of the station by using the fire escape.

Members of staff went out to look up and saw Mr Green trying to run up the pitch of the roof on the top of the canopy.

“He is seen to fall back to the gutter, and staff shouted at him to stop. One went out onto the roof trying to approach him, again with members of staff trying to coax him down.

“He dropped his trousers and showed them his backside, starting to move closer to the edge. A police officer tried to stop him, sliding on the roof and restraining him while lying face down and handcuffed.

“Mr Holloway says two trains were delayed by 30 minutes as a result of these actions, at a cost of £150. The cost of repairs to the roof is £300.”

The court heard Green has eight convictions for nine offences, with a suspended sentence of six months after brandishing an 18-inch blade in the middle of a road in July last year.

David Storrie, defending Green, told the court: “He suffers from depression and anxiety, and it is clear his downfall has been his problem with alcohol. That is the flavour of this case and the preceding case.

“He says he misheard what the train guard said the night before, and thought he heard the train was going to Reading rather than from Reading.”

Judge Peter Blair QC, sentencing, decided not to activate the suspended sentence.

“I am not going to waste the public’s money by putting you in prison for this offence, but you have come within a hair’s breadth of that,” he said.

Green, of Axbridge Close, was given a six-month rehabilitation order with an alcohol treatment requirement and a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

He was also made to pay £200 compensation for damage to the roof, a victim surcharge of £60 and criminal courts charge of £180.