TRAIN station security staff have been described as being ‘dismissive’ while a 24-year-old man died after being hit by a metallic horseshoe, a court has heard.

Thomas Parker died on platform eight just before midnight on July 30 last year and Kirkpatrick Virgo, of Whitby Road, Slough, is currently on trial for murder.

Virgo has admitted manslaughter and possession of an offensive weapon but the 42-year-old denies murder.

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An eyewitness who was at the station at the time of the incident described seeing Mr Parker laying on the floor and security staff being ‘dismissive’ and ‘slow’ to attend to him.

Tahir Khan, prosecuting, read out the eyewitness statement at Reading Crown Court today (March 23).

It read: “I saw three men fighting on the platform as I was walking towards the escalators. They seem to have got off the same train as ours.

“One was a black guy who had a leather bag. One was a white guy with short blonde hair. I could see there was someone else but I did not see them clearly as I was going up the escalator.

“I could see the black guy and the blonde guy fighting. The seemed to be pushing and shoving each other. When I looked back they were moving down the platform.

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“The blonde guy kept saying, ‘Drop it, drop it’ and I assumed he meant the bag. At the top of the escalator on the mezzanine floor [the men] came out of the lift and were fighting and went onto the floor and the station security arrived and tried to figure out what to do.

“The white guy was adamant to the security guys that they did not let the black guy go.”

The witness then needed the toilet and was directed back down to the platform to use the facilities underneath the escalators.

The statement continued: “I could see a young man laying on the floor of platform eight with someone next to them.

“I could not tell if he was the third guy I saw previously as he was facing away from us. At first, I thought they were keeping the person on the floor until the police got there.

“It became apparent the guy on the floor was hurt. We shouted at security guards to hurry up as they were being slow to respond and said, ‘It was just a fight’ and were being dismissive.”

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Emergency services tended to Mr Parker who was sadly pronounced dead at 12.40am on July 31, 2022.

The trial continues.