A business consultant threw himself into the path of an InterCity 125 train after the break-up of his marriage.

Anthony Matthew Costley-White, 52, from Wytham, near Oxford, killed himself just days after he received copies of his divorce papers.

The jury at the Oxford inquest heard on Thursday (24-7-98) how Mr Costley-White had left his Audi car yards from the track near Shrivenham, near Wantage, on April 18.

He was struck by the InterCity train, which was travelling from Swansea to Paddington at speeds of about 125mph. He was decapitated in the accident, which happened at about 3.40pm.

The train driver, Ernest Rossiter, from Swansea, said: "I sounded my horn but he kept on running.

"He knelt down and placed his head on the right-hand rail before spreading himself out. He turned his head and looked towards me."

Mr Rossiter said there was no chance of the train stopping in time to avoid the accident.

"It eventually stopped about a mile further down the track.

A friend of Mr Costley-White, Jennifer Corbett, of Park Town, Oxford, said all his friends were shocked at the way he died.

She said: "He had been served with divorce papers only a few days earlier.

"He was very upset about it."

The coroner recorded that Mr Costley-White had taken his own life.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.