Train surfer died in 25,000 volt fireball

A Harry Potter star’s brother who died train-surfing through London snapped pictures of his friend on the tracks seconds before he died in a ‘fireball’ of electricity, a court heard.

Ben Haddon-Cave, 27, and Paddy Bolster, 26, were ‘extremely drunk’ as they roof-hopped from carriage to carriage on top of a moving train.

The pair gained access by climbing through a hole in a fence joining Hackney Wick station to an unsupervised industrial estate.

Mr Haddon-Cave, whose sister Jessie Cave played the character of Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter films, was discovered by firefighters after they were called by a neighbour shortly before 1am.

The men had been drinking with a larger group of friends after attending a comedy gig at Howling Hop Brewery in east London.

CCTV footage was shown to St Pancras Coroners Court in which a flash of light appears near the back of the train and recedes to show a still figure lying on top of the carriage.

DC Vicki Bladen explained that the figure appeared to be Paddy while the ‘fireball was unfortunately Ben.’

‘The conclusion was that the fireball at Hackney Wick was actually unfortunately Ben and the body on top of the container was Paddy,’ she said.

‘Access was not gained through the station itself.

‘This was highlighted by a hole in the fencing in a small industrial estate known as Lion’s Works which is really around the corner from where Ben and Paddy were drinking that evening.

‘CCTV from a shop was viewed which shows the gates were opened by a colleague and two figures we believe were Ben and Paddy gained access to the estate.

‘The hole in the fencing was a large hole which went directly onto the back of the train and the train would have been there stationary at that time.’

‘You can see where the industrial state is because a big pink thing sticks out of the wall.

‘When I viewed the CCTV it was dark, but I would say that the flash of light came from around that area.’

DC Bladen went on to tell how Ben’s phone recovered from the scene showed photographs taken at 12.54am, the same time that the pair were tragically electrocuted.

‘We recovered the phones at the scene and both were looked at.

‘There were none of Ben himself but photographs of Paddy and in one it would appear he’s on one of the flatbeds and in others he’s most definitely on top of the cylindrical [carriage].

‘The last image was taken at 00:54:01’.

She added: ‘They had jumped from yellow container behind to the white container where they were electrocuted’.

Senior coroner Mary Hassell previously slammed Network Rail’s failure to provide key witnesses as ‘a sorry state of affairs’ after the court heard it took four hours to switch off the power lines so that paramedics could reach Mr Bolster on top of the train.

A Network Rail boss admitted that ‘fatal flaws’ in their system could mean that the risks leading to the deaths also exist at stations ‘all across London and the rest of England’.

Richard Tew, Head of Route Safety, Health & Environment at Network Rail explained that two botched inspections at Hackney Wick in 2017 and 2018 ‘could have been replicated elsewhere’.

Mr Tew said that neither of the inspections had been properly recorded for the two years prior to the deaths, leaving the dangerous hole in the fence which led to the deaths going unnoticed.

Network Rail realised that their system could ‘never possibly have picked it up’ because inspectors failed to print off the right forms, the court heard.

Ms Hassell said: ‘Your fatal flaw here is in your system having the inspector have to print out as well as put it in the electronic system’.

‘You then had from the deaths in March until the 30 August to find the records. You didn’t find the records in that time. Do you think your initial investigation was adequate?’

‘In hindsight, no,’ Mr Tew said.

The coroner asked: ‘You couldn’t have discovered the reason the track maintenance engineer had picked this up until the last week or 10 days?’

Mr Tew shook his head in silence.

‘There are potential areas were the same mistake has been carried out and you haven’t identified it, aren’t there?’ she asked Mr Tew.

‘There is the potential, yes,’ he said.

Ms Hassell added: ‘You had so many system failures here, including your investigation that actually that means you don’t know If this is replicated elsewhere, you don’t know if you have a system failure across the piece.

‘Quite clearly Paddy and Ben were adults and made choices and I’m sure their families would not shy away from that.

‘However, they were presented with an opportunity to get up on trackside which meant that they took actions resulting in their deaths.

‘A very simple way of avoiding this would have been an effective fence.

‘Nothing I’ve heard indicates that they were determined to get on trackside, that this was a planned, that this was something they carried out on a frequent basis.

‘The evidence I’ve heard made this sounds very opportunistic.

‘They saw a gap, they’d had a drink at the time, they thought it was a good idea.’

Paddy’s mother buried her head in her hands as Mr Tew offered his apologies.

He said: ‘Obviously I [offer my] condolences for the event and in terms of what’s happened its very tragic.

‘And if Network Rail has somehow increased the opportunity then obviously from my personal perspective then that’s very saddening and apologies.

‘It’s not something we want at Network Rail – for people to come into harm.

‘It’s not something we want to happen. So yes, I do feel for yourselves and what you’re going through at the moment.’

The inquest continues