KEY POINTS:
A survivor of the 1999 Paddington train crash who said he had been turned into a killer by post-traumatic stress disorder has won the right to claim up to £2 million ($5.2 million) in compensation.
In a ground-breaking decision, the Court of Appeal ruled that Thames Trains and Network Rail were liable for damages to Kerrie Gray, 48, of Tilbury, Essex, after he experienced a personality change when he suffered injuries.
Less than two years later, Gray stabbed to death John Boultwood, a 42-year-old welder who walked in front of his car and banged on his windscreen.
Family and friends told the court that Gray, later sentenced for Boultwood's manslaughter, had changed from a man who, before the crash, would have walked away from an argument to someone who became agitated and aggressive.
Yesterday's judgment by the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling that held Gray should not be allowed to profit from his crime. It is a long-established principle of English law that a convicted criminal cannot mount a legal action on the basis of an evil act.
But Sir Anthony Clarke, Master of the Rolls, concluded that the "traditional harsh" effects of this principle "should be revisited" in a case where Gray's crime was itself "caused" by the trauma he suffered in the rail crash.
The head-on train collision nine years ago left 31 dead and hundreds injured.
- INDEPENDENT
