‘TRAIN HIT AS Pc TRIED TO GET OFF TRACK’
APOLICE officer and “devoted mother” who tragically died when she was hit by a train is thought to have been trying to get off the tracks, an inquest heard.
Pc Lianne Matthews, 38, climbed down onto the tracks after fearing she was going to lose her job as a schools liaison officer.
The mother of three had previously been fined £1,000 and given a 20-month driving ban after being convicted of drink-driving and being drunk in charge of a child.
But an inquest in Newport yesterday was told South Wales Police officer Pc Matthews, based in Roath, Cardiff, “changed her mind” about taking her own life and may have been trying to get back off the tracks. Her family said they were on the phone to Pc Matthews as she stood on the tracks and had convinced her not to end her life only to hear the noise of an approaching engine while still on the call.
In a statement read to the inquest sister Heather Holsgrove said: “Lianne called my mother and was on loudspeaker as my mother wanted my father to hear.
“She was crying and said, ‘Do you know what it feels like not wanting to be here?’.”
Pc Matthews told her parents she was stood on the train tracks but was convinced to go home to her children. But her parents then heard the approaching train and then silence.
The hearing was told Pc Matthews was declared dead 20 minutes after the impact at Energlyn and Churchill Park, near Caerphilly.
Investigating officer DC Dilwyn Lewis told the inquest that Pc Matthews’ position on the track was not consistent with someone attempting suicide and said CCTV footage shows her facing the platform.
He said: “If it was a deliberate act and it was intended then they would stand in front on the train facing away and the injuries would be more traumatic.
“I think Lianne at the time deliberately went onto the track, but I think the contact with her mother caused her to change her mind and she tried to get back up on the platform and then it was either mistiming or she was expecting the train to stop at the station.”
Train driver Andrew Lee told the inquest the 150-tonne train was travelling at 50mph and was given the green signal to pass through the station.
He said: “Suddenly I saw an image in front of me. I thought it was a young person with a backpack. We looked directly at each other before impact.
“I tried to apply the emergency brakes but couldn’t stop in time and came to a stop a few hundred metres down the track.”
Pc Matthews was facing a police misconduct hearing for “discreditable conduct” at the time of her death on February 3. She joined the force in 2006 and her partner Geraint Higgins is a serving police officer as a detective in the same force.
Mr Higgins told the hearing he didn’t believe she intended to take her own life. He said: “Lianne was a beautiful girl who had a very caring nature.
“She was the most devoted mother I have ever seen. The last text I sent Lianne said how much I loved her.
“I believe alcohol and anxiety caused her to go onto the train line, but she didn’t intend to take her own life. I will always be haunted by the night of February 3.”
Assistant coroner for Gwent Sarah le Fevre recorded a narrative conclusion.
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