After appearing in court charged with trespassing on the railway, Shane White, 22, whose drunken stunt, left, was photographed by a train passenger and published in his local newspaper, said: “It was completely and utterly idiotic . . . I must be the luckiest man alive.”

White, of Tamworth, Staffordshire, was given a four-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months and a 120-day curfew order between 7pm and 7am. He was also told to pay £60 costs.

He had no memory of the incident until he saw himself pictured on the front page of the newspaper. He promptly handed himself in to police.

After the hearing before Tamworth magistrates White said that he had drunk three litres of cider and cans of beer before flinging himself off a footbridge and grabbing the cable.

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