On August 20, 1989, 51 people died when the Marchioness sank on the Thames following a collision with the dredger Bowbelle. It took another 12 years before a public inquiry finally apportioned blame.

Families who lost loved ones in the disaster said they had been emotionally raped during their 12-year battle for justice. Speaking following the publication of the report into the disaster, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott laid the blame for their suffering firmly at the door of the former Tory Government.

"The sinking of the Marchioness profoundly shocked the nation. A full public inquiry should have been held years ago. Lord Justice Clarke states that he hopes his inquiry will help ensure that nothing like this happens again.

"He hopes that his inquiry will have played some small part in helping relatives and survivors to put this appalling tragedy behind them."

To Louise Christian, the solicitor representing the families of five of the seven people killed in the Potters Bar rail crash, Mr Prescott's words in opposition seem hollow now that he is in power.

Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the Potters Bar tragedy. No public inquiry has been called because the Department of Transport says it would prejudice any future criminal hearing. No-one has admitted liability. A joint Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and British Transport Police (BTP) investigation is moving along at a snail's pace.

"John Prescott told the victims of the Marchioness disaster that a Labour Government would never behave in the way that the Tory Government behaved towards them," said Ms Christian.

"But the reality is that this Government is behaving just as badly to the Potters Bar victims, who are in a much worse situation, because at least in relation to the Marchioness disaster there was an admission of liability in the civil proceedings for compensation which enabled them to sue for damages."

Ms Christian added: "I said right at the beginning I was fearful this investigation would drag on, that we would not be any the wiser, and that the victims would be prejudiced by the failure to hold a public inquiry and that is precisely what has happened.

"It is not only the victims that have been prejudiced, but it is also prejudicing public safety. We still do not know what actually caused the derailment and the fear is that it could happen again."

A team of 28 BTP officers is still collating evidence about what exactly happened at Potters Bar. Some 5,000 people have been identified as having some connection to the crash, either as witnesses, victims or railway workers. Police have taken 1,350 statements.

It has been established that missing nuts on an adjustable stretcher bar on a set of points near the station caused the crash. But it is not known why they were missing, or who was responsible for removing them. Jarvis, the contractor employed to look after the track, still believes it was sabotage.

The HSE and BTP investigation is trying to find evidence of whether a criminal case can be brought against Network Rail or Jarvis for a breach of health and safety law which in a crown court carries an unlimited fine or manslaughter.

John Cartledge, deputy director of the London Transport Users' Committee, said: "According to rail industry gossip, the points could not have got into the state they were in unless somebody did it. Whatever their motives, it must have been done intentionally. The nuts couldn't have fallen off by accident."

Network Rail subscribes to a similar version of events. "The nuts were removed. They didn't fall off. There wasn't an inherent design problem on the bolt. They had been so outrageously adjusted outside the design parameters that is what caused the failure. Whether that was through a maintenance regime or through a deliberate act of sabotage is what the HSE is investigating with the help of the BTP," a spokesman said.

Mystery still revolves around five men in orange rail-worker jackets seen by a train driver on the track near Potters Bar about four hours before the crash. CCTV footage of the track at Potters Bar was sent to the FBI in America for enhancement to see if the men were captured on film, but without success. Police, Network Rail (formerly Railtrack), and Jarvis still do not know who the men were.

A BTP spokesman said: "We have this report of five people on the track. We haven't been able to trace them whether they were actually there or not is a moot point."

Mr Cartledge added: "Nobody else saw them and there is a limited number of people they could have been. If the police cannot find them, it is because they do not exist."

Meanwhile, the families' faith in the investigation is waning. "The bereaved and injured just don't have any confidence in the HSE. They conduct their investigation in secret, they are not transparent and they are not telling the bereaved and injured what is going on," says Ms Christian.

But an HSE spokesman hit back: "We have had at least two meetings with the bereaved and the feedback we have had is that they are broadly happy with the information with which we have been able to provide them.

"Criminal investigations are evidence-based. You work until you have exhausted all the foreseeable lines of inquiry and have answers to the questions you think are germane to those lines of inquiry and it takes as long as it takes."

May 7, 2003 13:00