'No trial' ruling angers crash victims' families

Relatives of the 31 passengers who died in the Paddington rail crash reacted angrily yesterday after it emerged that no one will be prosecuted for the accident.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that under the current law there was no realistic prospect of a conviction for manslaughter against Great Western Trains, Railtrack or any of their directors. It also confirmed that there was insufficient evidence to bring an offence of endangering the safety of railway users under the 1861 Offences against the Person Act.

Louise Christian, a solicitor acting for many of the injured and bereaved, said the decision had left the families "enormously upset and betrayed".

Today Lord Cullen opens his public inquiry into the crash on 5 October when a Thames train collided with a morning rush-hour Great Western express outside Paddington station in west London.