Rail deaths parents get suspended jail term sentence

A man whose daughter was killed on a railway line while she was in the care of her friend's "appallingly negligent" parents spoke of his anger after the couple were given suspended jail sentences yesterday.

Sophie George, aged seven, and Kymberly Allcock, eight, died when they were hit by a train as they lay on a railway bridge near Borth, west Wales, after going on a family picnic in July last year.

Gareth and Amanda Edwards, Sophie's parents, were found guilty at a trial in July, and sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, at Caernarfon Crown Court yesterday.

After the verdict, Kymberly's father, Tony Allcock, said : "I am devastated. They call this justice. Two innocent lives have been taken away here. I'm not just talking about my own daughter.

"This is not a minor crime, it's manslaughter – it deserves a punishment. What the judge is doing is allowing people to go and commit manslaughter, and saying, 'We will prosecute but we will not sentence you.' Where is the justice? Aren't we all here to look after our children?" He later added: "As far as I am concerned, they should be charged with murder. Never mind the families. It's time people sat back and thought about the two girls. What have they got?"

Sentencing, Mr Justice Richards told the couple, from the village of Tre'r-ddol, near Aberystwyth in west Wales, that the trauma of the accident meant that they deserved "compassion" from the court. They have split up since the accident. The judge told them he was being lenient because they had suffered enough and because they might have been misled when deciding where to picnic. An unauthorised stile led the railway line.

Mrs Edwards, who also has two sons, sobbed uncontrollably as the judge told her: "In your case, you lost your young daughter Sophie and witnessed the full horror of the accident. You have already suffered daily punishment through the realisation of your own loss, and the responsibility for the deaths of two girls, and through reliving in your mind the tragic events of that day."

The girls had been lying between the rails, dropping stones into the river below, when they were hit by a Sprinter train travelling at 60mph.

Mr Justice Richards said that in sentencing the pair he had also tried to balance the need for compassion with the feelings of Kymberly's family.

Matthew Allcock, Kymberly's 12-year-old brother, was also at the picnic, and told his father how Gareth Edwards had given permission for the children to play on the line, and promised to warn them if he saw a train coming.

Mr Allcock assembled statements and delivered the evidence to the British Transport Police, who took over the prosecution but said immediately after the couple were found guilty that they should not go to prison.

David Jenkins, a farmer, had told the jury in July that trains could not be heard approaching from the east because of the prevailing wind.

The accident caused a rift between villagers in Tre'r-ddol, whose loyalties were divided between the two bereaved families. Mr Allcock has since moved away.