Network Rail admits safety breaches over girls' deaths

Network Rail admits safety breaches over girls' deaths

Network Rail has admitted three health and safety breaches over the deaths of two girls at an Essex level crossing in 2005, a court has heard.

Olivia Bazlinton, 14, and Charlotte Thompson, 13, were hit by a train in 2005 as they crossed the tracks at Elsenham station footpath crossing in Essex. On Tuesday Network Rail (NR) indicated guilty pleas to three charges under the Health and Safety Act at Basildon Magistrates' Court and was committed for sentencing.

Olivia's father Chris Bazlinton said the move "proves that we have been lied to over the years". Charlotte's father Reg Thompson added: "The horror of that day is always with us and the huge hole in our lives left by Charlie will never be filled. In the aftermath of the accident, Network Rail claimed the girls had acted recklessly and that somehow their youthful exuberance led directly to their deaths, as if exuberance itself is a crime.

"I never believed that they were the architects of their own terrible end. It has taken six years to reveal the truth of what happened."

Network Rail said it would plead guilty to failing to carry out a sufficient risk assessment, failing to properly control protective measures at the level crossing and failing to prevent the girls from being exposed to the risks which led to their deaths. Network Rail will be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on March 15.

Charlotte Thompson and Olivia Bazlinton were
killed at a level crossing in Essex in December 2005

Defence counsel Prashant Popat said: "Network Rail has already privately expressed regret and remorse for this tragedy. Today it accepts publicly that these faults caused the deaths of these two girls."

Olivia and Charlotte were killed on December 3 2005 as they crossed a footpath leading to Elsenham station platform. The crossing was fitted with warning lights and yodel alarms.

A London to Cambridge train passed over the crossing with the red lights and yodel sounding - a warning for foot passengers not to cross. After the train passed, the lights remained on and the alarms continued to sound as another train, travelling from Birmingham to Stansted Airport in Essex, was going to pass through the station.

The girls opened the unlocked wicket gates and walked on to the crossing. They were both struck by the Stansted train and killed.

In a statement released after the hearing, David Higgins, chief executive of Network Rail, said: "Last year I apologised in person to the families of Olivia and Charlotte. Today, Network Rail repeats that apology. In this tragic case, Network Rail accepts that it was responsible for failings, and therefore we have pleaded guilty."

Copyright © 2012 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

Virgin Media funded police overtime

Policing in the UK has come under intense scrutiny after it emerged that company Virgin Media funded police overtime in return for the Met to probe an expensive commercial fraud case.

As the police face budget cuts and a recruitment freeze, it is understood that 30 detectives were sponsored by Richard Branson’s firm, with the company agreeing to support an additional overtime cost incurred by the Metropolitan Police.

The payments were intended to enable police to investigate a fraud case that had been costing the cable company an estimated £144 million a year.

According to the contract between Virgin Media and the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), “the MPA accepts from the donor the unconditional offer of cash donations of every 25% of any money returned to Virgin media under a compensation order following successful asset recovery work”.

A spokesman from Virgin Media told Yahoo!
News that there was no issue with the payments
and that the terms were fully detailed and disclosed in court.

The extra police work, which cost a total of £5,060, led to the successful prosecution of three men involved in an international set-top box scam that manufactured, imported and supplied set-top boxes from South Korea to UK dealers – allowing viewers to unlawfully access cable TV.


Such payments are legal under the Police Act 1996 – which states a police force may provide “special police services” to “any person” subject to payment. But the issue of private policing against regular and more important police work has been called into question by critics.
In fact, after the lawyers of one of the now-jailed defendants Munaf Ahmed Zinga argued that the private prosecution should not have gone ahead in the first place because the payments should have been considered illegal, Judge Inigon Bing instead ruled they were “above board”.
A spokesman from Virgin Media told Yahoo! News that there was no issue with the payments and that the terms were fully detailed and disclosed in court. 


He added: “The payments are not as secret as the media are making out today. Corporations pay the police for services all of the time.”


However, some think very differently. Speaking with Yahoo! News this morning about the issue of private policing, London Assembly member and a member of the Police and Crime committee Jenny Jones strongly opposed the payments. 


She said: “It’s outrageous. The police have always taken out private contracts for policing special events like football matches, concerts or celebrities. But when it’s a public order issue, it’s outrageous that they can use up police time to work on Virgin, regardless of whether it’s a priority or not.


“Instead of hiring detectives to gather evidence and building a case first, it is understood they hired out officers to do extra work in police overtime when there are more important things at stake like rape and child abuse cases to take care of.”


Civil liberties group Liberty similarly questioned the ethics of private policing and suggested that Virgin Media case seemed to “give wealthy victims of crime greater sway than poorer victims”, ‘The Daily Telegraph’ quotes.


Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: “Times may be tough but that's no excuse for turning the police into hired guns for those wealthy enough to pursue crimes against them. 


“Taking a percentage of a victim's remuneration is bad enough but even worse is the thought of those in greatest need of protection being turned away in favour of those who can afford to pay.”


The revelations come after the World Society of the Protection of Animals (WSPA) contributed a “significant amount of money” to directly fund the Met’s Wildlife Crime Unit. It is the first time policing in the UK has ever been funded by a charity.

The Green Party's Jenny Jones added: “The Wildlife Crime Unit has been going for 12 years. There were plans to cut it as it was not a policing priority like other elements of core policing. But, wildlife crime should be considered a core area of policing which the Met should be paying for.


“When it comes to funding, the charity money should always be seen as an extra investment in terms of increasing the unit's output and effectiveness.”


Sergeant Ian Knox, of the Wildlife Crime Unit, said: “The extra funding will pay for more staff so we can be more proactive in targeting criminals who seek to exploit animals for financial gain.”
©Yahoo!News

Chef seeking treatment over thefts

Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson has said he will start psychiatric treatment following his arrest for shoplifting cheese and wine from Tesco.

Celebrity Chef - I will seek treatment

The Ready Steady Cook star said he had been racking his brains to work out why he did it but was at a loss to explain his behaviour.

"There is absolutely no reason," he told the Daily Express. "I'm totally embarrassed, apologetic and gutted for my family and friends."

The 60-year-old, who is a food writer for the newspaper, said he wondered whether he had taken the items as a cry for help after being under "incredible stress".

He said: "We've moved home, which is stressful and it means I have to take two hours of every day driving to the restaurant and back. But I can't really blame that. There have been other things, including the funerals of a couple of close friends. I've had health problems too and have given up smoking and I've been anaemic so I'm more tired than usual.

"I'm here (at the restaurant) pretty much every opening hour. I'm 60 years old and it is incredibly tiring. I probably shouldn't do 12-hour days. And I didn't have any time off over Christmas when these things happened."

But he insisted he did not really want to blame his actions on stress.

There had been "massive trauma" in his life and he was abused as a child, he said, but he accepted that he could not blame his childhood for his conduct either. He also denied the problem was kleptomania and said he did not do it for the thrill of it.

"I just don't know what was going on in my head," he said. "It's like a little devil sitting at my shoulder or something. Normally I'm a strong guy but something's made me snap and I just don't know what. I hope I can get over this with some help."

He added that he hoped a psychoanalyst would help him discover what sent him "over the edge" and said he expected to be severely criticised for his conduct. "I hope I'm not going totally gaga in my old age," he continued. "I have wondered whether it's something like that but I hope 60 is too young for something like Alzheimer's."

©Press Association 2012