A TRAIN driver from Steeple Bumpstead is delighted to have been awarded £7500 damages in the High Court in London. The payout draws a line under a five-year ordeal between former PC Steve Trumm and train drivers union Aslef, which dates back to 2003, whe

A TRAIN driver from Steeple Bumpstead is delighted to have been awarded £7500 damages in the High Court in London.

The payout draws a line under a five-year ordeal between former PC Steve Trumm and train drivers' union Aslef, which dates back to 2003, when Mr Trumm publicised a private document exposing extravagant spending by senior union staff.

After exposing the document and becoming deeply disillusioned with the management of the union, Mr Trumm left Aslef and helped form a new train drivers' union, the Associated Train Crew Union, which has 125 members.

In 2006, in Aslef's newsletter, The Locomotive Journal, the general secretary of the union suggested that Mr Trumm's marriage had broken down and he had become estranged to his children as a result of his "obsession" with Aslef.

Mr Trumm said: "That was interesting - particularly as I'd never been married." He pursued a libel action against Aslef and, on Tuesday, was awarded damages.

A spokesman for Aslef confirmed the union had been ordered to pay Mr Trumm £7500 at the hearing last Tuesday (January 29).