TWO men charged with manslaughter following the deaths of four rail workers at Tebay earlier this year, appeared before the courts for the first time this week.

Mark Connolly, 47, of Coed Ana, Anglesey, and Roy Kennett, 27, of Old Mill Road, Maidstone, stood before a packed South Lakeland Magistrates Court in Kendal on Tuesday to face four counts of manslaughter.

Gary Tindall, 46, of Tebay; Colin Buckley, 49, and Darren Burgess, 30, both from Carnforth, and Chris Waters, 53, of Morecambe, were killed by a runaway maintenance trolley as they worked on a section of the West Coast main line on the outskirts of Tebay on February 15 this year.

The case will go before Carlisle Crown Court on November 10, for a preliminary hearing.

Connolly faces a further charge of perverting the cause of justice between February 15 and March 1 and three charges of breaching Health and Safety at Work rules.

He stands accused of neglecting the safety of workers on February 15 and intentionally or recklessly disconnecting a section of brake-pipe and removing springs from the brake units of two trailers between August, 2003, and February.

Kennett is accused of one offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to carry out his responsibility of ensuring the two trailers were safe to use and by failing to take reasonable care for the safety of people working in the vicinity.