Ex-Mayor of Manchester speaks of his horror as he's attacked on tram

A former Lord Mayor of Manchester has spoken out after he was attacked on a tram. Councillor Tommy Judge, 66, boarded a tram at Baguley when he was targeted by Adam Wood.

Launching an expletive-ridden rant, he said 'you're not a f***ing veteran', before trying to rip Coun Judge's Coat of Arms badge for the City of Manchester, a veterans badge and a poppy, from his jacket.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Coun Judge spoke of the moment he realised things were about to escalate on October 31 2022.

READ MORE: Drunk thug who abused and attacked war veteran over wearing a poppy is ripped apart by judge

“Well, I'd just finished my term as the Lord Mayor of Manchester. I think I finished a couple of weeks ago. I was sitting on the tram going to a meeting at Manchester town hall,” he said.

“[The meeting] was about the Remembrance Day services at the cenotaph. So I attended this meeting to go through the organisation and I was going into Manchester.

“I got on the tram at the sacred heart of Baguley. And I get on the tram and I see two - this is like 9:00 in the morning - there's two seats I saw at the front that were free. I think that's very strange, I usually have to stand up.

“So I go straight down, sit down over there. And then I looked across to my left at this man and woman. And he's drinking a bottle of spirits. He's fairly loud and I realise why nobody has sat in these seats.

“I have the City of Manchester crest, it's just like a badge. And I have a veteran's badge. And I think I had my poppy pin on as well.”

Wood questioned Coun Judge, who represents Sharston in the council chamber, about them before he explained their significance.

“'They're fake', he says... 'they're not medals'. Anyway, he started getting up and I just sat there. He's having to go and he's pushing me and I'm just trying to hold him back,” Coun Judge said.

Wood then told him he ‘wasn’t a true war veteran’ and should be ‘ashamed’. When his face was inches away from Coun Judge, he said: “You're not a f***ing veteran you're wearing them on the wrong side”. Wood began shouting and swearing at Coun Judge, forcing him to move to a different part of the tram, but Wood followed.

“This went on for about five minutes, ten minutes. And it's going on. And he's saying ‘I've lost five brothers’. So I thought, you know, I'm not going to come back, saying ‘well, I lost 12 over the M62 coach bombing’.”

Wood then started grabbing at the badges on his jacket. Coun Judge stood up, pushing Wood out of the way and got off at Northern Moor. “He's at the door of the tram, shouting and bawling. So I take [my jacket] off and refix my badges and then I get the next tram down and go in,” he added.

“I had the meeting in the town hall and I came back out and I saw these travel safe officers and I spoke to them. And this guy said ‘we had him this morning at Cornbrook’. He must have got off at Cornbrook.

“And he was shouting about what he'd done to me. That I wasn't a veteran. I was one of these make believe soldiers whatever they call them. So I said to myself ‘oh no, I'm not going to let you get away with that’.”

Coun Judge reported the incident to the police, who arrested Wood on December 24 2022. He told them: “You’ve got the wrong person." He later admitted common assault and a public order offence, and was jailed on Friday (June 21) for two months.

“I'd just love to sit down with him and find out if he was a veteran who's got on hard times because I can't believe he is, because no veteran would do that to another one,” Coun Judge said.

“I just thought I'm not going to let him get away with this. He should be held to account. And if he is a veteran and he did lose colleagues, I fully understand that. He needs to seek help. He needs to go get help. That's what I was concerned about.

“But before we do that, let's get him to account and find out exactly who he is and what he was doing.” He said it was ‘very intimidating’, saying he understood why other members of the public didn’t get involved.

“He was a big guy and I'm like 5ft 6in, he was way up on me. I understand that, but one thing you learn in the army is get yourself away from the confrontation.”

Judge John Potter, sentencing, said of Coun Judge: "There he was, doing nothing but getting a tram journey in Manchester and he was faced by a drunken lout."

"I agree," Wood said from the dock. Judge Potter added: "That victim impact statement makes it quite clear that your victim has felt a significant impact by what you did - he is somebody who for many years has been a public servant. He now finds it difficult and frightening to travel on a tram because of what you did to him."

"I feel ashamed," Wood said. "Be quiet, Mr Wood," the judge told him. "Your behaviour was nothing short of a disgrace. It was bullying. It was humiliating. It was aggressive and, in my opinion, designed to upset a man in the later part of his life who had done absolutely nothing to merit this boorish and offensive behaviour."

Wood, of Hathersage Road, Rusholme, was jailed for two months. When he is released, he will remain subject to a suspended sentence which Manchester JPs imposed on June 19 for a separate public order offence.