Young mother killed by train after row with boyfriend at Wimbledon station

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A young mum was killed by an express train in south London after she climbed onto railway tracks following a row with her boyfriend, an inquest heard today.

Charlene Pickering, 23, tried to haul herself back onto the platform at Wimbledon Station, and a railway worker came to help her, but could not pull her out of the path of the oncoming train from Exeter.

Ms Pickering, who had a four-year-old son, and her boyfriend Daniel Pickett, both from Walton-on-Thames, had been out drinking on 8 January, and started arguing at the station at around 7.30pm as she wanted to stay out, and he wanted to go home, according to The Evening Standard.

Mr Pickett said Charlene threw her phone off the platform and threatened to walk onto he tracks.

He went to look for staff to help retrieve the phone, but when he returned she had disappeared.

He said: "I called out and said 'where are you?' I ran upstairs and came down on to the other side of the platform. That is when I saw her under the lip of the platform.

"I was telling her 'get up, don't be so stupid' and that is when the ticket inspector was trying to help her back up... by then the train was coming."

CCTV played in court reportedly showed Ms Pickering trying to get off the track, and the railway worker desperately trying to help her.

British Transport Police said the station worker has been left traumatised by the incident.

Miss Pickering's mother Pamela Pollington described her as a "loving and sociable" personable who could be "stubborn and feisty".

According to the Daily Mail, Mrs Pollington's statement said she believed her daughter went on to the tracks "almost certainly not giving thought to the consequences.

"We believe she would have felt more than able to climb back up."

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