Guilty.

Is what the court found this bloke to be. Mark Connolly, 49, of Anglesey, was convicted of four counts of manslaughter over the accident on the West Coast Main Line in February 2004 in which four men were killed by a runaway wagon that had been held in place with bits of wood.

Send the bastard down.

Update: He got nine years! And well deserved, too.

Prosecutor Robert Smith QC said Connolly, the boss of MAC Machinery Services, had deliberately disconnected the hydraulic brakes on two wagons because it was cheaper than repairing the wagons properly….

Connolly had deliberately disconnected the brakes on the two wagons because the hydraulic systems were in such a bad way they would not work properly in conjunction with the crane.

He then filled cables connecting the crane – usually filled with hydraulic brake fluid – with ball bearings, giving the impression everything was above board.

2 Comments on "Guilty."


  1. Dear Yorkshire Ranter,

    I like your stuff on VB. But when I click to read your past issues, I’m confronted by tiny text I can’t read. Is there a solution on your website for “growing” the text? And do you have a email address which I can reach you at?

    HG

    Reply

  2. HG, the tiny text problem should now be sorted. It seems to have been the result of a couple of missing li tags.

    My email address is a.harrowell AT gmail.com

    Reply

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