A foul-mouthed dad who verbally abused two carers on a train journey - one racially - and then assaulted five police officers when he was arrested has been jailed for a year.

Alex Steventon, 39, was travelling with his partner and children on a packed northbound Virgin Trains service on August 9 when they vacated an area earmarked for disabled people to accommodate a woman requiring 24-hour assistance.

That acted as the trigger for Steventon to unleash a "wall of abuse", Carlisle Crown Court heard.

He told one of the woman's carers - believed to be a white South African - to shut her "foreign mouth", abused another helper and, when a train manager tried to intervene, threatened to assault him and throw him out of a window. Prosecutor Charles Blatchford said of Steventon's tirade: "A number of people said it was a scary and intimidating incident in a confined space."

After British Transport Police intercepted the train at Penrith, Steventon was removed and asked to attend a voluntary interview.

He did not, and when officers went to his Currock Street home in Currock, Carlisle, on September 4, Steventon punched and kicked out at one and, after being arrested, assaulted four more in a custody suite.

Steventon admitted eight offences, including racially aggravated fear or provocation of violence, and five emergency worker assaults.

The defendant's barrister said he was remorseful, and had a long-standing back problem for which he desperately needed an operation and this caused a personality disorder and "mood swings".

Jailing Steventon for a year, Judge Nicholas Barker called his behaviour disgraceful.