A rare baby tortoise was stolen from his Braintree home, abused and then abandoned on a train to London Liverpool Street.

The one-year-old Indian Star tortoise was stolen from Essex Reptiles, in South Street, Braintree at around 10.20am on Monday.

After picking up the animal whilst the shop workers were distracted and hiding it in a coat, the thieves made off towards Braintree Station where they were spotted boarding the 11am train to Witham.

Later on that day, at around 5.30pm, a group of distressed members of the public approached British Transport Police officers at London Liverpool Street Station.

A spokesman for the British Transport Police said: “They had a bag, which contained a baby tortoise.

“They said at Witham, a number of youths had opened the doors of the train and had thrown the tortoise inside and against the carriage wall.

“Officers took the tortoise in, built him a warm little hut and fed him handouts from Upper Crust.

“They named him Michelangelo Patel-Wiggs or Mickey for short.”

Safe and with a new name, Mickey was then taken to RSPCA Harmsworth Hospital, in North London, where he scanned and checked over by a vet.

Despite the horrendous treatment he had received from the thugs, Mickey was found to be in a stable condition.

He was briefly lost in the big smoke but he is set to be reunited with his owners at the Braintree store on Tuesday evening.

Ross Blake, owner of the shop, said: “It is revolting someone could do this.

“For it to be of no benefit to them other than torturing the tortoise is the most disgusting thing about it. We expected them to try and sell it not do this.

“They could have done serious damage, he could have had to be put down.”

The rare breed of tortoise hails from areas of India and Sri Lanka, and is classed as threatened in the wild.

Mr Blake said that the business were delighted to get the tortoise home, but it was more important he had been found safely.

He said:: “The thing that has been really helpful has been the power of social media. That is how we have managed to find him eventually. That and quite a lot of luck.

“Our post about him being stolen was shared more than 150 times. There has been a lot of interest from the community and people have been helpful.”

Essex Police are currently investigating the theft of the tortoise from Essex Reptiles.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Essex Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.