Train driver ‘drags passenger with hand stuck in the door along the platform’

A train driver who is accused of dragging a passenger along the platform after she got her hand stuck in the door has made his first appearance in court.

Stephen Murdoch is accused of trapping the unidentified woman’s hand as she rushed to catch the train at Hayes and Harlington station.

CCTV footage of the incident shows the passenger being forced to run alongside the moving train as she desperately struggled to free her hand.

Thankfully she managed to pull herself free, Highbury magistrates heard, but fell on to the platform and suffered bruising and “injuries consistent with falling onto concrete”.

Murdoch, 44, of Reading, Berkshire, appeared in the dock yesterday after being charged over the incident, at around 1.10pm on July 25 last year.

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He is accused of wilful omission or neglect, namely closing the train doors with the victim’s hand still stuck between them, endangering the safety of a person conveyed or being in or upon the railway.

Murdoch spoke only to confirm his name, age and date of birth and did not enter a plea.

Sara Ashkboos, prosecuting, said: “The incident occurred when a passenger was running to get on the train and got her hand stuck in the door as she was trying to get in.

“The Crown’s case is that the train driver moved the train while the victim was stuck in this door. As a result she was pulled along, running with the train, whilst her hand was trapped.

“She subsequently managed to free her hand and fell over quite abruptly.”

Murdoch was freed on bail until a hearing at Blackfriars Crown Court next month.

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