A terrified young man - desperately trying to flee two teenage mobile phone muggers - was chased onto railway tracks as he dialled 999 and struck by a 100mph express train, a jury were told today.
Apprentice electrician Lewis Ghessen, 22, had run into Harrow and Wealdstone station at 8.40pm and sprinted along the platform, telling the operator he feared for his life and was being pursued by "mad guys," Isleworth Crown Court was told.
Dominic Morris, 19, of Leavesden Road, Watford and a 16 year-old Harrow youth have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and attempting to rob Mr. Ghessen on September 25, last year.
"He ran onto the tracks because he was trying to escape these two defendants, because they were trying to rob him," said prosecutor Mr. Julian Evans.
Mr. Ghessen, from Paddington, (pictured) was already celebrating his twenty-third birthday, which was the next day, and had been drinking and smoking cannabis and had taken ecstasy and amphetamine in the hours before his death.
After celebrating a christening at the Royal British Legion Club, Queens Park, Mr. Ghessen took a rail replacement bus to the station, and during the journey hugged fellow-passengers, tried to kiss girls, talked football with strangers and revealed he had a wrap of white powder.
After leaving the bus he went to a chicken takeaway shop in the nearby high street.
"These defendants had seen the victim in the high street and he was in possession of two mobile phones," explained Mr. Evans. "Having seen these two phones these defendants targeted him and planned to rob him.
"They approached him in the high street and there was some sort of confrontation when they tried to rob him. The victim ran to the station to try and get away and he tried to get into a car stationary at traffic lights.
"He went into the station to avoid getting robbed and these defendants pursued Mr. Ghessen to rob him.
"Mr. Ghessen crawled beneath the ticket barrier that guards access to the station platform and went into the station itself and ran up the stairs to the bridge that provides access to the platforms.
"As he went up the stairs at speed he appears to have stumbled and dropped one of those phones, picked it up, and continued up the stairs and then down to platform six," added Mr. Evans.
"These two defendants went into the same entrance and pursued, followed Mr. Ghessen into the station, not out of concern for his welfare, but because they were trying to rob him.
"These two defendants were acting together, supporting each other. They entered the station thirty seconds after the victim and they both ran up the same stairs Mr. Ghessen had run up, now a little closer behind.
"They looked out of the window that provides a view to the tracks below and having seen him running down platform six they continued their pursuit and ran down the same stairs and platform Mr. Ghessen had been fleeing along."
By now terrified Mr. Ghessen called 999. "During that call he told the operator he was being chased by 'mad guys' and said he did not want to lose his life.
"He said several times he did not want to get robbed and told the operator he nearly got hit by a train and was now on the tracks.
"He called a friend, but this call ended abruptly because he was hit and killed by an express train travelling at approximately one hundred miles per hour.
"That caused the victim severe and serious injuries consistent with a high velocity impact, a glancing blow.
"The prosecution case is that the victim ran onto the railway tracks because he was trying to avoid these two defendants who were trying to rob him, having pursued him up those stairs," added Mr. Evans.
Trial continues……….
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