A ZERO tolerance warning has been issued by a North Yorkshire train company after a conductor was attacked with a broken bottle on a York to Scarborough train.

Northern Spirit issued its declaration after a mother with a young child deliberately smashed a bottle to use it as a weapon in a train toilet then slashed the conductor on the face.

Leigh Coggins, 38, also swore at a station supervisor as she and the conductor were trying to help her four-year son, believing he had lost his mother.

Coggins was remanded in custody for a month within 24 hours of her arrest.

She had never been in trouble with the police before.

Howard Keal, spokesman for Northern Spirit, which operated the train on which the incident occurred, said: "Basically we operate a policy of zero tolerance on the harassment of our staff.

"We make every effort to assist people in all circumstances, but when that is met with abuse or violence we will press for the toughest possible penalties to be imposed.

Coggins, of Nansen Street, Scarborough, pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm on the conductor, abusive behaviour towards the woman supervisor and having an offensive weapon.

She was put on probation for 18 months and ordered to pay the conductor £100 compensation. She had asked Scarborough magistrates to remand her in custody because she was "out of control".

Prosecutor Alan Mitcheson told York Crown Court that Coggins reacted violently on a York to Scarborough train on August 1 when conductor Raymond Carter asked her to leave a first-class compartment because she held a second-class ticket. After the train arrived at Scarborough Station, he and station supervisor, Christine Botham, tried to help her four-year son when he appeared to have been left by his mother. But Coggins reappeared, carrying a broken bottle in her hand she later told police she had prepared in a train toilet to use as a weapon.

Her attack left Mr Carter with a small cut to his cheek which did not need medical attention.

She had drunk a litre of cider and three shorts of vodka and had taken too high a dose of her prescribed medicine.

Geraldine Kelly, for Coggins, said her client lived on benefits.