Bethan Roper Named As Woman Killed 'While Leaning Out Of Train Window'

Bethan Roper, 28, was returning from a Christmas shopping trip with friends.
Bethan Roper
Bethan Roper
PA

A woman who died from serious head injuries after she leaned out of a train window was a charity worker returning from a Christmas shopping trip with friends.

Bethan Roper, 28, was killed on the Bristol Temple Meads-bound service on 1 December. Police believe her injuries were caused when she leaned out of the carriage she was travelling in.

The charity worker and chair of a young socialist group was returning to her home in South Wales after spending the day at Bath’s Christmas Market with friends when she suffered the fatal blow to her head.

Roper, from Penarth, South Wales, was working for the Welsh Refugee Council at the time of her death, having graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2013.

The charity, a sister organisation to the UK-wide Refugee Council, works to help asylum seekers and refugees in Wales, according to the Press Association.

She was also a campaigner and chairman of Young Socialists Cardiff, and gave a speech in Cardiff earlier this year arguing asylum seekers’ rights to work and receive education were being ignored by the UK government.

A spokesman for British Transport Police said a day after the incident: “We were called at around 10.10pm following a report a woman had received serious head injuries while travelling on a train between Bath and Keynsham.

“Officers from British Transport Police attended along with colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police and South Western Ambulance Service, but despite their best efforts the woman died at the scene.

“Our investigation remains at an early stage, but initial inquiries suggest the woman may have been leaning out of a window when she suffered a blow to the head.”

The spokesman said the incident was reported to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, and that the death was not being treated as suspicious.

An inquest into her death is yet to open at Avon Coroner’s Court in Bristol.

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