Homeless man fined for trespassing

Police asked him to leave several times but eventually arrested Mr Cooper, who has relatives in Hamstead Marshall and has been living rough for seven years, Newbury magistrates heard.
Helen Gambrill, prosecuting on Thursday, June 26, said: “It was 11am and officers found him asleep under the rail bridge between the rails and the boundary fence. He had effectively set up home there and had been arrested for trespass twice before that week.”
Mr Cooper admitted trespassing on Network Rail property on June 7 this year.
Representing himself, he told the court: “I’ve been homeless for seven years. I was using that particular location as somewhere to sleep because it’s dry, safe, quiet and out of the way. That’s really all there is to it.”
Mr Cooper was made subject to a six month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £35 costs plus a statutory surcharge of £15.