A SCHOOLGIRL told the train crash murder trial yesterday of the night
she saw her boyfriend and a friend climbing back up a railway
embankment.
Michelle Low, 16, claimed that 17-year-old Gary Dougan said: ''Wait
and see a train crash.'' She thought it was said as a joke, and that his
friend, 17-year-old Craig Houston replied: ''Don't be stupid, Gary.''
Miss Low, who was 15 at the time a passenger train was derailed near
Greenock and two men died, was giving evidence at the High Court in
Glasgow.
Mr Dougan, of Prospecthill Street, and Mr Houston, of Holefarm Road,
both Greenock, deny derailing a train by placing concrete slabs on the
rails and murdering 35-year-old driver Arthur McKee, and 21-year-old
passenger Alan Nicol.
The court heard the 10.45pm train from Wemyss Bay to Glasgow crashed
into a bridge near Peat Road, Greenock, on June 25 last.
Miss Low, of Grieve Road, Greenock, said she and the two accused and
Mr Houston's girlfriend, Lesley Ann Keith, had been drinking beer with
other teenagers at a dam near the railway line that Saturday night.
About 10pm the two accused went down the embankment at the bridge to
urinate and she and Miss Keith sat on a bench.
Miss Low told Mr Colin Boyd, prosecuting, that the two accused were
only gone about five minutes. When they returned she claimed Mr Dougan
said Mr Houston had smashed a bottle on the line.
Mr Dougan said to Mr Houston that they could get locked up and had
added: ''Are you trying to cause an accident?'' It was then Mr Dougan
said: ''Wait and see a train crash,'' and Mr Houston said: ''Don't be
stupid, Gary.''
Later, they heard there had been a crash. Asked by Mr Boyd if Mr
Dougan later said anything else Miss Low said he told Mr Houston: ''That
could have been your fault smashing that bottle.''
The girl said the remark was made as a joke and Mr Houston had
replied: ''Aye, away Gary, as if a bottle is going to cause a train
crash.''
Earlier, British Rail expert John Lewis told the court that in his
view at least three of the slabs, used to cover cables laid along the
track side, had been stacked on top of each other and propped over a
rail at an angle.
The trial continues.
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