A TRAIN fanatic sent letters threatening to bomb the world’s busiest steam heritage railway and target its passengers, a court has heard.

North Yorkshire Moors Railway enthusiast Nicholas Cawthorne posted a stream of poison pen letters to staff at the Pickering-based charity in a bid to blacken the name of another registered volunteer.

Leeds Magistrates’ Court was told Cawthorne, 50, of Colton, near Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, had a lifelong love of railways, but carried out the harassment campaign in February and March as part of a feud with David Lake.

Marie Austin-Walsh, prosecuting, said: “Some of the letters are threatening and abusive, some of them make threats to harm passengers and one refers to a bomb being placed on the railway.

“None of them were taken seriously by the railway or the police to the degree of any immediate action being taken.

“The police seemed to have formed the opinion that, in their words, the letters were written by some sort of crank.”

Mr Lake was arrested as a result of the letters, and later re-arrested after Cawthorne sent more letters in his name.

Cawthorne was unmasked as the real letter-writer after sending letters to the railway in his own name complaining about Mr Lake.

Police arrested Cawthorne after matching his fingerprints and DNA to the letters and receiving help from a handwriting expert.

Ghazanfar Iqbal, defending, said Cawthorne, who admitted harassment, was deeply embarrassed and had been having a breakdown when he wrote the letters.

Mr Iqbal said: “This is a lifelong love of his and something he realises he won’t be able to return to.”

Cawthorne was given an indefinite restraining order banning him from contacting Mr Lake or North Yorkshire Moors Railway staff, or travelling on the railway.

He was also handed a fourmonth prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, 100 hours’ unpaid work and ordered to pay Mr Lake £500 compensation and £85 costs.