Couple await picnic rail deaths verdict

The children had been playing a game on the bridge

The jury in the trial of a couple accused of manslaughter after their daughter and a friend were killed by a train during a day out have been sent home to consider their verdicts.

After an hour of deliberations at Swansea Crown Court on Thursday, the panel were sent home for the night, to return to court on Friday.

They had just finished hearing evidence from the stepfather of one of the girls who died, who said the tragedy would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Gareth Edwards recalled events leading up to the tragedy

Gareth Edwards, 33, and his wife Amanda from Tre'rddol near Aberystwyth, are charged with manslaughter of their daughter seven-year-old Sophie George and friend Kymberly Allcock, eight, last July.

The girls, who had been taken out on a picnic, were playing on a railway bridge when they were hit by a high-speed passenger train at Borth.

When asked if he blamed himself for their deaths, Mr Edwards replied: "That is a very difficult question for me to answer, particularly in these circumstances.

"What happened on that day is something I will never forget and will live with me for the rest of my life."

Leighton Davies QC, prosecuting - who has accused the Edwards of "staggering negligence that must be marked by a criminal conviction - said they had failed in their duties.

He said: "Would a reasonable, careful parent leave his child out of his or her sight for a second in that vicinity?"

"The fact that the children were on the line means that you and Amanda could not have been keeping a watch on them every second of the time. You must have failed in your duty as a parent."

Kymberly Allcock, one of the girls who died

When Mr Davies put it to him that a railway line was a dangerous place for children to play, he said: "Knowing what I know now, I can only agree with you."

Mr Edwards - a deputy manager at a cash-and-carry store - told the court of events leading up to the incident on a railway bridge crossing the Dyfi Estuary.

He said they had ventured out with four children and their new baby.

"Amanda and I had taken the children for walks from the moment we met each other so there was nothing unusual there," he said.

"We paused at the stone bridge and I tried to demonstrate to the children stone skimming."

He said he escorted the children across the style.

"The children were playing in the usual way children play," he said.

The court was told that the children had been playing on the bridge for up to 30 minutes unsupervised.

Amanda Edwards shouted to warn the two girls

But Mr Edwards told the court the children were never out of his sight for more than three minutes at a time.

"They were coming to us and we were giving them a drink of pop now and again and some crisps," he said.

"They would pat the baby on the head and say hello. There was some discussion amongst them. They were looking for a plastic bottle which they thought was underneath the bridge. I remember them going underneath the bridge.

"Amanda and I were sitting side by side on the embankment with the baby and we became aware of a noise."

On Wednesday, Mandy Edwards broke down shaking and crying as she described the moment when she says she realised the children were on the railway bridge.

She said she heard her son shouting, she looked up and saw the train coming.

Seeing her daughter Sophie and her eight-year-old friend Kymberly lying on the track she shouted to them to get off the line but it was too late and the train hit them.

The girls' brothers Christopher George, nine, and 11-year-old Matthew Allcock, managed to jump to safety as the train roared past.

The Edwards deny manslaughter through negligence.