Six rail workers make first appearance in court over Hatfield rail disaster

Six railway workers and the two companies that employ them made their first court appearance yesterday to face charges of manslaughter relating to the Hatfield rail crash three years ago.

The men appeared before magistrates in St Albans, Hertfordshire, at a hearing attended by relatives of the four men killed when a Great North Eastern Railway express travelling from Leeds to London was derailed by a broken rail in October 2000.

Six more defendants, including Gerald Corbett, 51, the former chief executive of the defunct infrastructure company Railtrack, now Network Rail, were also in court to face allegations of breaking health and safety laws.

The hearing was the first time that those alleged to be responsible for causing the crash, which also injured hundreds and caused prolonged and widespread chaos on the railways, have formally appeared to answer the charges against them after a two-year police investigation.

Unusually, the court imposed an order withholding the home addresses of the 12 defendants after the Crown Prosecution Service and defence lawyers expressed concern that they might receive abuse.

Each of the men charged with manslaughter - Charles Pollard, 45, director of Railtrack's north-east London zone; Alistair Cook, 50, infrastructure contracts manager for Railtrack in the same region; Sean Fugill, 50, the area asset manager for Railtrack; Anthony Walker, 46, regional director for Balfour Beatty; Nicholas Jeffries, 53, civil engineer for Balfour Beatty; and Keith Lea, 53, a track engineer for Railtrack - said he understood the charge against him. The maximum sentence for manslaughter is life imprisonment.

Railtrack and Balfour Beatty Rail Infrastructure Services, the rail maintenance firm in charge of the upkeep of the east coast main line at the time of the crash, face separate charges of corporate man-slaughter through gross negligence. The companies can be punished by unlimited fines.

All 12 defendants, including Mr Corbett and Christopher Leah, the director of safety for Railtrack, face a single count of "consenting to or conniving in" a failure to perform duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1983.

Network Rail, which inherited responsibility for all Railtrack's activities, has reiterated its intention to defend the charges against itself and its employees. Balfour Beatty has given the same assurance.

Iain Brown, Network Rail's company solicitor, said: "Unfortunately, we cannot turn back the clock. Despite the painful and difficult experiences of recent years, the industry must move on."

The case was adjourned for eight days, after which a timetable for a trial is expected to be decided at St Albans Crown Court.