The headteacher at a school for excluded pupils today admitted using threatening words and behaviour after a late night drunken row with a colleague at a train station.

Katrina Mann, 48, the principal of Barking and Dagenham Tuition Centre, was handed a 12-month conditional discharge for swearing at police and teacher Darren McCarthy, 38, outside Barking Train Station on January 26.

McCarthy, of Tudor Court, Walthamstow, also pleaded guilty at Romford Magistrates’ Court to using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour and was given a 12-month conditional discharge. His barrister Andrew Locke described the moments police held him without charge as “effectively a mini kettle”.

McCarthy and Mann, of Devonshire Road, Hornchurch, both faced losing their jobs, their barristers said.

Roy Baxendall, chairman of the bench, told them: “Your behaviour was totally unacceptable. You completely lost it and showed yourself up.”

Mann’s barrister, Donal Lawler, said: “Ms Mann was unable to account for any of her behaviour saying she didn’t remember any of it. She stated she was definitely drunk. Mr McCarthy denied being drunk.”

Both defendants have also been ordered to pay �85 prosecution costs. A council spokesman said: “They are on special leave pending disciplinary investigation.”