A manslaughter jury has heard how a 16-year-old girl, who was tragically run over by a Merseyrail train, had been urged to stand back from the carriage.

Nikita Morrison shouted to her friend, college student Georgia Varley, who had got off at the wrong station, to move away but seconds later she was dead.

Georgia had earlier been urged to go home instead of going into Liverpool with her friends but she had refused.

It is alleged that the guard on the train, 45-year-old Christopher McGee, was to blame for her death by signalling the driver to start the train when he could not have failed to know the teenager was drunk and in contact with the train.

McGee, of Edenhurst Avenue, Wallasey,  denies manslaughter and also a charge of failing to ensure the safety of others.

The jury heard yesterday how Georgia had refused to get a taxi home or get a lift and insisted on going to Liverpool with her friends.

When they got to Manor Road station they met some mutual friends, including Natalie Watson, whose friend Nikita Morrison knew Georgia.

“She was very drunk. She fell over a lot," said Miss Watson.

She said that Georgia got off the train at James Street.

“She came back towards the doors when she realised her friends hadn’t got off but the doors closed.

“Nikita opened a little window. Nikita was shouting at her to move away.

“She was leaning right on the glass. She just kept leaning on the window.

“Nikita was shouting for her to move away. She said: ‘I love you, just get away from the train’.

“She was still leaning on the train as the train moved away. We couldn’t see her any more. I just presumed she moved away," she said.

Another passenger Gemma McGuinness, said, "She was speaking through the window with her hands against the window talking to Nikita."

She said that Nikita told her to stay there and wait and they would get off at the next stop and come back to get her.

Questioned by Nicholas Johnson, QC, prosecuting, about where Georgia was when the train began to move she replied, "She still had her hands on the window talking through the window when the train started to go, she went with the train.

“She just disappeared. I thought she had landed on the platform."

Wiping away tears she agreed that "the train came to a shuddering halt and the lights went off and this became very upsetting for everybody.”

The jury also heard evidence from the driver of the train, Belinda Nicholson, who described the scene as "hell on earth".

Ms Nicholson, who had been a train driver for 16 years prior to the accident on October 22 last year, said she was operating blind and was relying on McGee to be her "eyes and ears" tell her when the train was safe to move off.

She said when she got ‘two bells’ from McGee she began to accelerate only for a warning third bell to sound ‘within seconds’.

She said they were on the last train on that route that night and the passengers were ‘rowdy’.

When they stopped at Meols station Georgia got off the train by mistake.

“I could hear shouting. Someone shouting Georgia get back in or something. I stuck my head out of the window and could see Chris walking along the platform. There were girls and a lad holding open the doors of the train.

“A girl came out of the waiting area. They were all shouting get in. The doors closed so Chris went back.”

When they arrived at James Street Station in Liverpool a lot of passengers got off the train, including Georgia.

Ms Nicholson said, “I just sat there waiting. I could hear shouting: ‘Georgia, Georgia’ but I couldn’t see anything.

“There were still a lot of people on the train. I didn’t take any notice.

"It was a normal Saturday night. It’s normally pretty bad on Saturday night.”

She said after McGee gave her the two bells signal to start she move off but was only up to about 10mph when she heard a single bell to signal an emergency stop.

She got on the train's radio and asked if McGee had given her that bell signal.

“He (McGee) said, 'yes. She’s fallen.'"

The case continues.

 

The case continues.