Frantic last call of boy trapped on railway line

A boy pleaded desperately for help as he lay trapped in front of an oncoming train, an inquest heard today.

Ryan Quinn, 14, got his hand lodged in a cattle grid in Portrush, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, in January 2009.

Moments before his death, he made a frantic phone call to his father, Ivan, claiming he had been attacked in a nearby bar and was being chased.

He said: "Daddy, you are going to have to come quickly. I cannot get out, my knuckle is stuck." He was hit by the last train from Coleraine to Portrush and suffered fatal injuries.

A statement from his father at Coleraine coroner's court said: "He was begging me, he was screaming down the phone." The family, who maintain Ryan was murdered, have been told there is insufficient evidence to bring a case against two suspects.

Train driver Ian Cairns said he believed he saw someone running away from the line a split second before the collision, although the inquest heard that his first statement to police made no reference to seeing anybody else. "I suddenly had a flashback," he said. "I am convinced there was someone else on the track."

Ryan was three times over the legal alcohol limit when he died and had been at McLaughlin's bar celebrating his half-brother's 18th birthday, the inquest heard. The boy's mother, Lisa Kinnaird, said she did not know he was going to a bar or that he had been drinking.

Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison said: "We are aware that Ryan was subjected to a minor assault prior to finding himself on the railway line."

Coroner John Leckey found heavy bruising supported the conclusion that Ryan's hand was trapped in the grid, and that he died from multiple injuries sustained during the collision.