A woman who cost rail companies more than £25,000 by walking on the train tracks – on occasions narrowly escaping with her life – is facing a possible jail sentence.
Bethany Rose De-Cogan, 20, diced with death on several occasions by encroaching onto the tracks in Northallerton as trains approached.
De-Cogan appeared for sentence at York Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday after admitting four counts of obstructing an engine and using the railway by an unlawful act.
She also admitted two further charges of sending menacing text messages to a named female and harassing the woman, as well as assaulting an emergency worker.
The rail incidents occurred at Northallerton Railway Station and a nearby level crossing in May and June this year.
Prosecutor Kathryn Reeve said in the first incident on May 11, a signaller at the Low Gates level crossing in High Street heard “singing coming from outside (the signal box)”.
“She saw a female outside – Bethany De-Cogan,” added Ms Reeve.
“She was staggering over the level crossing with headphones on.”
Police and paramedics were called to the scene, but De-Cogan climbed over a wall and crossed the tracks. A train was approaching but was brought to a halt after the signaller put a ‘stop’ on the line.
De-Cogan, of Malpas Road, Northallerton, was eventually coaxed into the paramedics’ vehicle and driven home.
Ms Reeve said the incident caused just over two hours of delays to train services, costing more than £10,000.
Three weeks later, De-Cogan was back on the tracks again, drunk.
“A train driver had been stopped and informed by the signaller… that an intoxicated female (had) walked off the platform at Northallerton Train Station,” said Ms Reeve.
The driver saw De-Cogan and applied the emergency brake.
“He got out and approached her,” added Ms Reeve. “She identified herself as Bethany. She said she was trying to get to Darlington.”
Ms Reeve said the incident had caused nearly two hours of delays to train services at a cost of just over £6,000.
In yet another incident days later, a train had to come to a stop near the station. Police were called out and found De-Cogan walking along the tracks.
De-Cogan, who was “incoherent and dazed”, was told to drop to her knees and arrested. The incident caused 34 minutes of delays at a cost of just over £9,000.
In police interview, De-Cogan denied that it was her intention to cause train services “to be stopped or delayed”.
But on June 30, she was back on the tracks again, this time clutching a bottle of gin. Officers and paramedics were called out to the Northallerton station where they found De-Cogan reeking of alcohol.
Ms Reeve said there had been several incidents in which police had been called out to reports of De-Cogan wandering the tracks, two of which came perilously close to tragedy.
“She has been hit twice by a train – causing an injury to her knee on one occasion,” added the prosecutor.
In another incident, De-Cogan got so close to a passing locomotive that it flipped the hood on her jacket.
“As a result, the train driver had to go off sick because he was so distraught by the incident,” said Ms Reeve.
In August, just months after the incidents on the railway, De-Cogan began a campaign of harassment against a named woman whom she bombarded with threatening text messages and unanswered phone calls. It had left the victim, who lives near De-Cogan, “very frightened”.
In a separate incident on August 31, De-Cogan was being transported along the A19 in an ambulance when she started banging on the side of the vehicle, forcing the driver to stop. When he opened the back doors, she jumped out onto the road and “started heading towards traffic”.
Paramedics tried to restrain her, but as they did so she “kicked and lashed out” and they all ended up in a heap on the ground.
In the following week, De-Cogan made a further 62 phone calls to the female harassment victim and even turned up at her home “on at least two occasions”.
The victim no longer felt safe in her home, said Ms Reeve.
Stephen Munro, for the defendant, said it was “clear that Miss De-Cogan has deep-seated issues that are at the root of her offending”.
Magistrates adjourned sentence to November 7 for a psychiatric report which could result in an alternative form of punishment, although a jail sentence was still a “real” prospect.
De-Cogan was bailed until then on condition that she did not contact the female harassment victim or go anywhere near her address. She was also ordered not to go within 100 metres of any railway line.
In addition, the bench made an interim criminal behaviour order which prohibits De-Cogan from entering Northallerton or Thirsk railway stations, going on land owned by Network Rail or being drunk in public.
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