Six month prison for man who threatened NS conductor

A man who held a knife to a train conductor's neck on Easter Monday was sentenced to six months in prison on Thursday, two of which conditional. The court in Zeeland-West-Brabant also ruled that he has to pay the conductor €750 in damages. The 50-year-old man had pulled the knife on the conductor on the train from Oisterwijk to Tilburg on April 6. The incident happened when the ticket taker asked the passenger -for whom authorities do not have an address- for his ticket. The conductor feared for his life, but other NS personnel and police were able to bring him to safety and arrest the assailant. Witnesses quickly offered to give accounts of what happened. The Public Prosecutor had demanded nine months in prison -three of which conditional. "This does not just regard the safety of the conductor who should be able to do his workbut also about the safety of the passengers. Everybody in the train was held hostage. People who execute public tasks -like conductors, police and ambulance personnel, should be able to do their work without the threat of violence," the prosecutor said. He said that his demand was 200% higher, as per the directives of the Public Prosecutor's office.