A woman who cost train services over £25,000 by walking on the railway line – on occasions narrowly escaping with her life – has been banned from the tracks.
Bethany Rose De-Cogan, 20, diced with death on several occasions by encroaching onto the railway in Northallerton as trains approached.
The troubled young woman appeared for sentence on Thursday after admitting four counts of obstructing a locomotive engine and trespassing on the railway.
She also admitted two further charges of sending menacing text messages to a named female and harassing the woman, as well as assaulting a paramedic.
The 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 while 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 just 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.
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 smelling 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.
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.
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.
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”.
On Thursday at the magistrates’ court, De-Cogan – whose sentence had been adjourned for psychiatric reports – was given an 18-month community order with a rehabilitation programme to address her alcohol problems.
She was also subjected to a five-year criminal-behaviour order which prohibits her from entering Northallerton or Thirsk railway stations or going on land owned by Network Rail in North Yorkshire.
She was also banned from being drunk in public in the Hambleton district or contacting the emergency services except in the case of an emergency.
Magistrates also slapped her with a restraining order banning her from contacting the female harassment victim or going anywhere near her address.
She was also ordered to pay £100 compensation to the victim and a similar amount to the paramedic she assaulted.
De-Cogan was told she can enter train stations and use rail services when she has pre-arranged appointments and has a train ticket for those appointments.
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