In an incident prompted by alleged racism, 20 year old Cory Edwards has claimed to be forced out of a carriage on a train from London after row with a fellow passenger. The Literature student and photographer was travelling on a train from Paddington with a reserved seat ticket. Finding an elderly woman sitting on his seat, she decided to sit in another place himself.
Speaking to the media, he said, “I got on the train at Paddington and I had a reserved seat but an old woman was sitting there. I didn't want to bother her and asked her to move so I sat somewhere else instead. A couple came on at Reading, they came and stood in front of me and said 'that's our seat' and asked me to move.” He said, “Before I even got a chance to move they started giving me all these looks, the guy put his hand on my camera, starts moving my stuff. Then he starts to threaten me, said 'if this wasn't on a train, I'll find you in Plymouth'.” Edwards said police were called and were on the train for between 20 to 25 minutes while the incident was resolved. But, he said, the officers did not listen to his side of the story and instead asked him to move to a different part of the train.
“They told me if I wanted to continue discussing it I'd have to get off the train. They made me go somewhere else and wouldn't let me sit in my reserved seat. It would be different for someone from a rich area who wasn't black. I know for sure there has to be some kind of racial motivation behind it, I know what it looks like when I see it.” Responding, a British Transport Police spokesman said, “I can confirm we were called to a train at Reading station at around 1.45pm on Wednesday, 30 March, following reports of an argument between passengers over a reserved seat. Officers attended and spoke to those involved. A man was asked to leave a seat which was reserved for another person. The officers who attended felt the incident had been resolved amicably as nobody wished to make a formal complaint at the time and therefore no further action was taken.”
