AN investigation will be held following the conviction of a Bolton magistrate for being drunk and disorderly on a train.

Sandra Taylor, aged 54, was found guilty at Blackburn Magistrates Court following an incident on a train between Bolton and Darwen in February last year.

Her conviction will now be reported to the advisory committee of the Bolton bench of magistrates.

Chairman of the Bolton bench, Ken Hanham, said: "The advisory committee will decide what action will be taken.

"It will be very dependent on the details of the case as to whether they can deal with it immediately or at a later date."

Mrs Taylor, who is a lecturer at Bolton College, has been a magistrate on the Bolton bench since 1997.

She has been on leave of absence from the post as a Justice of the Peace since the incident 20 months ago.

Mrs Taylor said today she was considering making an appeal against the verdict. She said: "Our barrister is looking into an appeal at the moment."

In court yesterday Mrs Taylor admitted pulling the communication cord to stop the train as it pulled out of Entwistle Station where she wanted to get off.

But she claimed the guard who spoke to her had been unable to cope with her "assertiveness".

And she said the actions of a man who claimed to be an off-duty police officer had inflamed a situation which eventually resulted in Taylor and her husband Brian being arrested.

Mr Taylor, a retired businessman, was charged with endangering life on the railway and being drunk and disorderly. He was acquitted of the first charge by a jury at Preston Crown Court and the second charge was discontinued.

His wife, of Entwistle Hall, Turton, pleaded not guilty to being drunk and disorderly but was convicted after a two day trial. She was given a conditional discharge for six months and ordered to pay £200 prosecution costs.

Speaking after the hearing, the couple said: "We are very disappointed and will be speaking to our legal advisers about the possibility of an appeal.

"It has been very distressing for us since this incident 20 months ago, going through two court hearings, and we just need some time to take stock."

Taylor said she did not know if the conviction would affect her position as a magistrate, from which she has taken leave of absence since being arrested on February 5, 2000. She said she did not think it would affect her employment.

The court heard that Taylor and her husband had left home on the evening of the incident to go to Bolton for a night out.

They had been waiting on Entwistle station when a train passed through without stopping. They subsequently complained and received compensation from the rail operator.

While waiting for the next train the couple walked to the Strawbury Duck pub where they said they had a glass of red wine each. In Bolton they had a meal, during which they shared a bottle of red wine, and afterwards went to a pub where college colleagues were celebrating. Taylor said she had a single pint of Guinness before she and her husband left to catch the last train back to Entwistle.

The couple claimed that the train again failed to stop at the isolated, un-manned station. But the guard, train driver and a passenger all said it had stopped.

Taylor accepted that as the train went through the station she pulled the communication cord, bringing it to a halt and sparking a row with the guard and then the man who claimed to be an off-duty police officer.

Taylor claimed she had been anxious to get home to her 15-year-old daughter who had been unwell, but prosecutor Silvia Dacre said that pulling the communication cord had been a gross over-reaction.

"I suggest that it was not an emergency," said Miss Dacre. She said the court had heard evidence from several people who said the train had stopped.

Taylor claimed she had been "assertive" in her dealings with the guard, but Miss Dacre suggested she had been "out of control".

Halt

Taylor accepted that when she and her husband were spoken to by the off-duty policeman she had confirmed his suggestion that she was a magistrate. She accepted that at one stage she had called another passenger a "stupid pratt".

The couple were approached by a man in a black leather jacket who flashed some kind of identification and claimed to be an off-duty police officer. Taylor said he was very aggressive and she thought at one stage that he was going to hit her husband. She claimed the man was abusive to them both and that her husband was provoked into pulling the communication cord.

Taylor said two officers took hold of her and, after marching her off the train, dragged her backwards down the station approach. She said she was eventually pushed into the back of a police Land Rover.

"I landed in a most undignified way, on my back with my feet in the air," said Taylor.

Margaret Halligan, of Hannah Street, Darwen, a defence witness, told how she had been traced by Mr Taylor after writing an anonymous letter of support to the couple. He had placed a newspaper advert asking her to contact them and had eventually called at her home. Mrs Halligan said she had felt threatened by Mr Taylor.

She said the train did not stop at Entwistle that night and said that at one stage Taylor had been "getting worked up".

"There were heated words but that is not unusual on that train," said Mrs Halligan.