THE coroner in the Selby rail crash inquest has directed the jury to return verdicts of unlawful killing today at the end of the week-long hearing.

Deputy North Yorkshire coroner David Hinchliffe told the 11 men and women they could not contradict the decision of a Leeds Crown Court jury in December, 2001.

The criminal case ended with Gary Hart, now 39, of Strubby, Alford, Lincolnshire, being convicted on ten counts of causing death by dangerous driving. He is now serving five years in prison. Yesterday, the inquest jury at the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, heard that Hart's Land Rover was central to the disaster.

He had fallen asleep at the wheel while driving along the M62 and the Land Rover with a trailer carrying a car had come off the motorway on to the East Coast main line.

Ten people died when a GNER Newcastle to London train was partly derailed by hitting the Land Rover and then collided head-on with a Freightliner coal train going in the opposite direction at Great Heck on February 28, 2001.

Updated: 10:50 Friday, September 12, 2003