THE jury at the inquest into the Potters Bar derailment of 10 May 2002 have retired to consider the evidence. The hearing at Letchworth has been told about the deaths of seven people, six of whom were on board a train to King's Lynn which became derailed just south of the station. A seventh person died after she was hit by debris.

Experts have told the coroner, Judge Michael Findlay Baker QC, that the root cause of the derailment was a faulty set of points, and that the standard of maintenance in the area was questionable.

The inquest has also heard from Steven Norris, chairman of the contractors Jarvis, the company which held a contract with Railtrack in 2002 to maintain the line. He had suggested that sabotage could have been a factor, but maintained to the inquest that this had been overplayed by the media at the time.

The jury is being asked for verdicts on the deaths of Austen Kark, Emma Knights, Jonael Schickler, Alexander Ogunwusi, Chia Hsin Lin and Chia Chin Wu. They were all travelling in the last coach of the train, which became completely derailed and ended up on its side, wedged under the platform canopy.

The seventh victim, Agnes Quinlivan, was walking under the railway bridge immediately south of the station. She died after she was hit by debris which fell from the bridge after the derailed train had passed over it.

The inquest has also been told that the train was being driven correctly, under clear signals, and travelling at just under the line speed of 100mph (160km/h).