Hatfield crash companies in court

Four people died in the crash near Hatfield in Hertfordshire

Six men and two companies charged with manslaughter after the Hatfield rail crash have appeared in court.

Representatives of Network Rail, the successor to Railtrack, the maintenance contractor, Balfour Beatty, and the six senior managers appeared before Central Hertfordshire magistrates in St Albans on Monday.

Each defendant spoke only to confirm that they understood the charge before them.

They are to be tried at St Albans Crown Court

If found guilty, the individuals could face life imprisonment and the two companies could be ordered to pay unlimited fines.

Four people died and dozens more were injured in the October 2000 crash, caused by a broken rail, when a high speed GNER East Coast train derailed just south of Hatfield station in Hertfordshire.

Crash victims Steve Arthur, 46, from Pease Pottage, West Sussex Peter Monkhouse, 50, of Headingley, Leeds Leslie Gray, 43, of Tuxford, Nottingham Robert James Alcorn, 37, of Auckland, New Zealand

A further six men face charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act only, including the former boss of Railtrack, Gerald Corbett, who is now chairman of Woolworth's.

Both the companies and their employees have said they would defend themselves against the charges.

The 12 men facing charges and representatives of the two companies were given unconditional bail to appear at the Crown Court on 22 July.

Lawyers for both prosecution and defence asked for the addresses of defendants to be withheld to avoid the possibility of abusive phone calls or letters being received by the families of those accused.

In the two-and-a-half years since the crash, 1,500 witnesses have given evidence.

Police have seized more than one million pages of documents.

The accident led to a network-wide inspection of tracks and speed restrictions on trains while work took place.

Manslaughter charges

The six men charged with four offences of manslaughter and one health and safety offence, with their job titles at the time of the crash, are:

Charles Pollard, 45, director of the London North Eastern Zone of Railtrack

Alistair Cook, 50, infrastructure contracts manager of the London North Eastern Zone of Railtrack

Sean Fugill, 50, area asset manager of the London North Eastern Zone (South) of Railtrack

Anthony Walker, 46, regional director until 11 August, 2000 of Balfour Beatty

Nicholas Jeffries, 53, civil engineer for Balfour Beatty

Keith Lea, 53, track engineer of the London North Eastern Zone of Railtrack

The six summoned under the Health and Safety at Work Act, with their job titles at the time of the crash, are:

Gerald Corbett, 51, chief executive of Railtrack

Christopher Leah, 55, director of safety and operations of Railtrack

Stephen Huxley, 45, managing director until 31 August, 2000 of Balfour Beatty

Kenneth Hedley, 48, a track engineer for Balfour Beatty

Vernon Bullen, 47, King's Cross area maintenance engineer for Balfour Beatty

Keith Hughes, 48, an acting track engineer for Balfour Beatty