Rail crossing victims' families vow to continue fight despite forcing Network ... - Telegraph.co.uk

But despite the victory the families said it brought them no comfort and they continued their battle for answers and to prevent more deaths.

Reg Thompson, 54, Charlotte's father, said Network Rail had "behaved appallingly badly and without honour".

"Today does not give me any satisfaction or pleasure at all, but I do want people to know, people to realise, that Charlie and Liv would be alive today had Elsenham station had proper safety measures in place.

"I am old enough and tired enough to be not shocked by any kind of behaviour – the people who are responsible for what happened to Liv and Charlie probably still sleep at night – that's the way that the world is I am afraid.

"She is part of our lives all the time …. it does not get better. People say that time cures – time does not cure. You just get used to it."

He said that if Network Rail had behaved with any integrity, it would have reduced their pain.

"If they had acted with integrity and said 'we knew, we are sorry', it would not have brought the girls back but at least it would have been honourable and we could have got on with our lives.

"This is not about anything other than making the railways safer and making the truth come out."

Chris Bazlinton, 63, Olivia's father, said that they were "angry" that the company had withheld documents from them.

"We still have a lot of questions we want answered – 'who knew about this?' 'how high did the cover-up go? … and I do believe it was a cover-up," he said.

"They withheld documents from official enquiries, they withheld documents from the coroner and this is not ending today."

The two girls were killed on December 3, 2005, as they crossed a footpath leading to Elsenham station platform.

The crossing's lights were flashing and alarms were sounding as the London to Cambridge train passed over the crossing – a warning for foot passengers not to cross.

But after the train passed, the lights remained on and the alarms continued to sound as another train, travelling from Birmingham to Stansted Airport in Essex, was going to pass through the station.

The girls mistakenly opened the unlocked wicket gates and walked on to the crossing and were struck by the second train.

Sarah LeFerve, prosecuting, said when the girls' train had arrived at the station, they crossed the track, "believing themselves to be safe".

She said: "They stepped across the track and directly into the path of a train heading in the opposite direction and both were killed."

She asked for the case to be sentenced at crown court, saying fines, totalling £30,000, available to the magistrates were insufficient for the gravity of the offences.

After the hearing David Higgins, chief executive of Network Rail, said: "Last year I apologised in person to the families of Olivia and Charlotte.

"Today, Network Rail repeats that apology. In this tragic case, Network Rail accepts that it was responsible for failings, and therefore we have pleaded guilty.

"Nothing we can say or do will lessen the pain felt by Olivia and Charlotte's families but I have promised them that we are committed to making our railway as safe as possible."

Sentencing takes place at Chelmsford Crown Court on March 15.

The court hearing came just three days after the death of another teenager – 15-year-old Katie Littlewood, who was killed at Bishop's Stortford, Herts as she crossed tracks just a few miles away from where Olivia and Charlotte died.

Network Rail believe that Katie's death was a "tragic accident" as investigations afterward showed no faults with the safety measures.