Train Guard Found Guilty Over Girl's Death

[markjay]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-20328125

 

[nick mercedes]

BBC News - Georgia Varley train death: Guard guilty over rail death fall

Drunk girl does something stupid and it turns out to be someone else's fault.

And he gets jailed??

Blame culture, innit.

 

[brucemillar]

A tragic story. There are no happy endings for anybody involved in this.

In simple terms the Jury took the view that he is the Guard but failed to Guard. Irrespective of the unfortunate young lady's state at the time. He saw her but allowed the train to move off.

Tragic.

 

[Dieselman]

Probably about 50/50 really. He did have a legal duty to ensure customer safety, but she was in an unsafe condition.

 

[Stratman]

Except that the guard is responsible for ensuring the train's safe departure.

Drunk people use trains. They do silly things. The various train unions are always blathering how the guards are 'vital for health and safety' as they demand another pay rise.

This guard sent the train on its way when it was clearly not safe to do so.

 

[nick mercedes]

Except that the guard is responsible for ensuring the train's safe departure.

Drunk people use trains. They do silly things. The various train unions are always blathering how the guards are 'vital for health and safety' as they demand another pay rise.

This guard sent the train on its way when it was clearly not safe to do so.

"VIDEO: Mother's moving tribute after Merseyrail guard Christopher McGee guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence in Georgia Varley trial

Read more: Liverpool Echo http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/11/14/video-mother-s-moving-tribute-after-merseyrail-guard-christopher-mcgee-guilty-of-manslaughter-by-gross-negligence-in-georgia-varley-trial-100252-32233029/#ixzz2CErgKdkb"

Note the above mother let her underage child go out and get drunk and do drugs, but when the consequences of that go badly wrong, it's a strangers fault...

 

[nick mercedes]

Tragic.

Nothing tragic about it.

Children are allowed to go out to get drunk and drugged up, and hapless other people are blamed for the parent's and the child's own shortcomings.

Only tragic thing is that man going about his job is in jail because of a stupid drunk girl.

 

[brucemillar]

Nothing tragic about it.

Children are allowed to go out to get drunk and drugged up, and hapless other people are blamed for the parent's and the child's own shortcomings.

Only tragic thing is that man going about his job is in jail because of a stupid drunk girl.

As I said Tragic.

 

[Rob77]

Only tragic thing is that man going about his job is in jail because of a stupid drunk girl.

Except he wasn't going about his job, was he? His job involved him in blowing a whistle/waving a flag when it was safe for the train to leave. And he didn't.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Only tragic thing is that man going about his job is in jail because of a stupid drunk girl.

Are you suggesting he was justified in causing her death because she was drunk? And that if she hadn't been drunk when she fell, he would have stopped the train? I'm not sure it's her drunkenness that's at issue here.

 

[Stratman]

How many of us would be here today if underage drinking was a capital offence?

 

[Dieselman]

How many of us would be here today if underage drinking was a capital offence?

She wasn't hanged, She fell under a train.

 

[Beetnik]

^^pimp^^

 

[MOCAŠ]

She wasn't hanged, She fell under a train.

And he saw that she'd fallen but allowed the train to move off anyway. Hence his conviction.

 

[Dieselman]

And he saw that she'd fallen but allowed the train to move off anyway. Hence his conviction.

That's not what it said in the article, where are you getting that information from?

Maybe you just threw that in to cause a bit more of a circular debate?

 

[MOCAŠ]

That's not what it said in the article, where are you getting that information from?

I read a different account a few days ago.

 

[nick mercedes]

Are you suggesting he was justified in causing her death because she was drunk? And that if she hadn't been drunk when she fell, he would have stopped the train? I'm not sure it's her drunkenness that's at issue here.

Drunk girl, so drunk she keeps falling over, gets off train, then manages to fall down the gap, but it's someone else's fault?

Blame culture always assumes people's recklessness is someone else's fault.

 

[brucemillar]

I'd prefer that we stick to what was stated in court and shown to the court from the CCTV footage.

She did not fall under the train.

She was leaning against the carriage in view of the guard when he accepts he allowed the train to move off. She was then pulled/turned under the train.

Drink or drugs is not the issue. The issue was. Did the Guard do his job? A jury decided having heard his evidence and seen the CCTV footage that he did not.

Had he done his job and held the train she would be alive today.

The towers of virtue that we have on here could have had her tarred and feathered for drinking underage.


Instead of doing his job he told the jury that "he thought she was moving away from the train when HE GAVE THE ORDER TO DEPART. He did not know how drunk she was or if indeed she was drunk at all. The case was about did he do his job.


"We have listened in court as our daughter was portrayed as being a drunken liability when, in all honesty, she did no more than what many teenagers do of a weekend - she went out to celebrate a her friends birthday. The only liability that night was a train guard whom she had the catastrophic misfortune to encounter. For he had very little if any regard at all for our daughter and her Safety".

 

[MOCAŠ]

The account I'd read (as mentioned in post #16) was quoting the prosecution's QC in court:

Only one person had the capability to prevent the situation which led to her death. Christopher McGee was the guard on the train and we say he did two things.

He gave the signal to the driver when he could not have failed to realise that Georgia was in contact with the train and she was in an intoxicated state. He could see that she had her hands against the train and knowing or at least suspecting that she was worse for drink, he gave the signal for the train to start.

It was a deliberate act. He must have known that it would subject Georgia to a degree of force which was highly likely to throw her off balance with the consequent risk of injury. We say that starting the train was in itself a criminal act.

The second thing he did was he failed to countermand the signal when it was clear that Georgia could be dragged under the train with the obvious risk of killing her. We do not say he intended to kill Georgia but the risk must have been obvious to a highly trained train guard as it would be to an average person.

 

[Scott_F]

Drink or drugs is not the issue. The issue was. Did the Guard do his job?

Clearly he failed to do his job properly but you can't simply remove drink and drugs from the equation. Had she not taken drugs and drunk herself senseless then the whole chain of events that led to this tragedy wouldn't have begun.

"We have listened in court as our daughter was portrayed as being a drunken liability when, in all honesty, she did no more than what many teenagers do of a weekend - she went out to celebrate a her friends birthday. The only liability that night was a train guard whom she had the catastrophic misfortune to encounter. For he had very little if any regard at all for our daughter and her Safety".

Nor, it appears, did her mother.