RAIL passengers looked on helplessly as two Hibernian fans were sucked
to their deaths through the door of a train travelling at 100mph, an
inquest was told yesterday.
Mr John McTigue, 23, Easter Drylaw Bank, and Mr George Crook, 24,
Paisley Drive, both Edinburgh, were on their way to see their club play
Anderlecht in Belgium last September when the accident happened.
Another fan made a desperate bid to stop the pair falling from the
InterCity 125 service from Aberdeen to London's King's Cross but he
could not hold on to their flailing hands, the inquest at Huntingdon
heard.
Both men died instantly from head injuries after falling on to the
tracks at Offord, Cambridgeshire.
Mrs Carol Clarkeson told the inquest how the pair had been playing
with her five-year-old son Glynn in the packed train moments before Mr
McTigue, known as Tyson, suddenly leaned over Mr Crook to open a window.
Mrs Clarkeson said that she saw Mr McTigue shout something out of the
window then his hand moved toward the handle and suddenly the door flew
open.
''Both men just seemed to be swept out of the door,'' she said.
Another fan, Mr Callum Milne, tried to grab the men as they fell but
could not hold on. ''I had George's hand in my left hand and Tyson's
hand in my right hand,'' he said. ''I just couldn't hold on to them and
suddenly they were gone.''
British Rail technical engineer Mr Neil Barker told the inquest: ''The
door did not open by accident. It had to be deliberately opened.''
The jury returned verdicts of accidental death on Mr McTigue, a
clerical officer whose girlfriend has since given birth to his baby, and
Mr Crook, a joiner due to marry this summer.
They had been part of a group of 100 Hibernian fans, some of them
drunken and rowdy, of which 70 had disembarked in Peterborough.
British Transport police had joined the train at York after being
alerted to the fans' behaviour but coroner Mr David Morris was told that
most of the troublemakers got off at Peterborough, leaving only high
spirited but good natured fans on board.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article