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| Victim left 15% shorter after Tube 'prank' | Victim left 15% shorter after Tube 'prank' |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| A Tube passenger has been left 15% shorter after her back was fractured in a "prank" that went wrong, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard. | A Tube passenger has been left 15% shorter after her back was fractured in a "prank" that went wrong, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard. |
| RAF flight sergeant Frans Bekker, 50, from Cardiff, tried to slide down an escalator handrail at London's Holborn station to prove to his friends he "could still move". | RAF flight sergeant Frans Bekker, 50, from Cardiff, tried to slide down an escalator handrail at London's Holborn station to prove to his friends he "could still move". |
| But he lost control and ploughed into three women, including Linda Soulsby who fractured a vertebra. | |
| He will be sentenced next month. | |
| Jonathan Swain, prosecuting, said: "Mr Bekker had hopped backwards onto the handrail of the escalator." | Jonathan Swain, prosecuting, said: "Mr Bekker had hopped backwards onto the handrail of the escalator." |
| It was then he hit the women, he said. | It was then he hit the women, he said. |
| "They did not have a chance to brace themselves as they didn't see it coming," he added. | "They did not have a chance to brace themselves as they didn't see it coming," he added. |
| Miss Soulsby was forced to wear a brace and has been left with "an approximate 15 percent loss of vertebral body height", the court heard. | Miss Soulsby was forced to wear a brace and has been left with "an approximate 15 percent loss of vertebral body height", the court heard. |
| Christian Cormack, defending, said: "As a prank, he attempted to leap on and off the escalator, to show in his own words, that he could still move. | Christian Cormack, defending, said: "As a prank, he attempted to leap on and off the escalator, to show in his own words, that he could still move. |
| "He was mortified and has been since." | "He was mortified and has been since." |
| Bekker admitted endangering the safety of a person conveyed by railway. | Bekker admitted endangering the safety of a person conveyed by railway. |