Parents 'needlessly allowed train death girls on to track'

A young couple, who saw their daughter and her friend crushed to death by a train, were accused of manslaughter yesterday for allowing them to play on the track.

Swansea Crown Court was told that Sophie George, seven, and her friend Kymberley Allcock, eight, died needlessly after being allowed to play for almost half an hour on a railway bridge that carried trains.

Sophie's stepfather Gareth Edwards, 33, and her mother Amanda, 34, had set up a picnic alongside the railway line and were enjoying it "without a care in the world", said Leighton Davies QC, prosecuting.

The couple, who deny manslaughter through gross negligence, were in charge of four children – including Kymberley's brother Matthew, 11, Sophie's brother Christopher, nine, and a baby.

Although this was a tragedy for the couple, Mr Davies said, the evidence would show that their lack of care was so serious the case deserved to be categorised as criminal.

"The harsh reality is that the lives of these two young girls were lost completely needlessly," said Mr Davies.

"They were not alone on that railway line, they had not wandered from home unsupervised by any adults. They were actually in the company of the defendants, supposedly under the charge, and in their care.

"When the train struck and killed these two girls the defendants were sitting on the railway embankment a matter of yards away from the bridge, facing away from the railway line with a view out to sea."

Mr Davies told the court that the girls were lying down on the railway bridge, hidden from the driver's view, when the Lincoln to Aberystwyth Sprinter train ran over them on 29 July last year.

"As he came up to the bridge he must have seen what must have been a horrifying moment for him – the two girls lying on the track," said Mr Davies. "By the time he saw them it was too late. The train was travelling at its normal speed of 60mph."

Mr and Mrs Edwards, of Tre'rddol, near Aberystwyth, west Wales, claim they did not encourage the children to play on the track or lose sight of them for more than two minutes during the afternoon.