A man who has a dangerous obsession with climbing onto railway lines has been jailed for breaking an order which bans him from every station on Britain.

Lucas Sanders-Drake was arrested twice within the space of one day at Exeter St David’s station where he claimed he had been told by a psychiatrist to take his own life by lying on the track and being hit by a train.

He told staff that he wanted to die so he could regenerate as the next Doctor Who and then use the Tardis to take him to another station in Portsmouth.

He had only been released from prison two days earlier and has a history of disrupting the railways by climbing onto rail lines, especially at Exeter St David’s and the nearby Red Cow level crossing.

Every rail line which runs to Cornwall, Plymouth, and South and West Devon runs through the station and in the past he has caused massive delays by getting onto the line.

Sanders-Drake was banned from entering every railway station in Britain by a restraining order imposed after that incident and another in which he threatened to grab a female train guard and drag her under a train.

He was described as highly dangerous by a Judge and jailed for four years and six months for that offence and has been released from jail on December 7th last year.

He went to the station on December 9th and was seen wandering around the platforms. He was taken to hospital as a precaution but released later in the day after having been seen by psychiatrists.

He went straight back to the station where he said he ‘wanted to die in a violent manner so he could regenerate as Dr Who and go in the Tardis to Portsmouth Harbour station’.

Sanders-Drake, aged 57, formerly of Exeter Road, Topsham but now homeless, denied two counts of breaking a restraining order but was convicted by a jury at Exeter Crown Court and jailed for three years by Judge James Adkin.

He told him: “You have threatened to kill a female member of staff in the past and on this occasion you were seeking to cause disruption. Your explanation did not make a lot of sense.”

Mr Paul Grumbar, prosecuting, said the restraining order was made in 2019 when Sanders-Drake was jailed for obstructing the railway and confirmed a year later when he was jailed for breaking the order.

He went to the station twice on December 9th last year, being taken to hospital the first time and to prison the second, when he claimed he wanted to die and regenerate as Doctor Who.

A psychiatrist said Sanders-Drake suffered from an emotionally unstable and dissocial personality disorders but not treatable mental illness. He said he told him to go to the council to seek accommodation, reminded him of the restraining order, and told him not to go to the station.

Sanders-Drake told the jury there was no valid restraining order because it had been made under his previous name of Robin Woodard. He said a doctor at Wonford House Hospital in Exeter had told him to go to the station and commit suicide.

Mr Edward Bailey, mitigating, said his client is: “A lonely, disturbed and confused individual.”