Reading Coroner’s Court heard an inquest last week into an incident concerning a 10-year-old boy who died after his mum placed him on a railway track on September 23, 2014. Both were killed within seconds at about 9.45 am when they were hit by the 8.41am Bedwyn to London Paddington service, which was travelling at about 99 mph. The boy died in the arms of his mother and was 'unlawfully killed', a coroner has ruled.
The court was told that 46-year-old Rubina Khan was seen by train driver David Campbell-Kinder to bend down to talk to her son, who was in his school uniform, before climbing onto the tracks with him and laying down. The boy's backpack full of school books was found by investigators on a bench on the platform. Rubina Khan had been released from a mental health hospital four days before the pair died, the inquest heard.
Khan's husband of 22 years, Jahinger Khan, grew concerned about his son and wife when he returned to an empty home on the day. He had also received a call from his son's school that day that Amaar had not shown up for lessons.
Jahinger immediately drove to his mother-in-law's house where he spoke to Zahire, Rubina's brother, who said that he had seen her and Amaar that morning.
In his statement read to the Berkshire Coroner Peter Bedford, Zahire said, “I had never seen her in town before and it was a school day and Amaar was with her... but a nice unexpected surprise. We stopped and had a brief chat. Amaar appeared to be happy and excited and I asked 'what are you lot doing here?'”. He added, “I just said 'okay' and then waved and said our goodbyes and walked off in opposite directions. Looking back now there was nothing during our meeting that gave me concern and it was just a normal meeting between friends and family.”
Rubina. Zahire said, told him that she was going to the dentist with Amaar that day. This was 30 minutes before the pair died on the tracks at Slough station in 2014. The court also heard last week that the mother-of-three, Khan bought an adult and child train ticket to Windsor before walking to an empty platform where no trains were due to stop.
After meeting Jahinger, Zahire grew concerned and they drove to train station that was by then the centre of a police investigation.
