A RETIRED railway engineer died after being run over by a train - but how he got on to the tracks remains a mystery.

Bernard Keogh's body was found between the tracks at Swanscombe station at just before midnight on April 28. His injuries showed he had been hit by a train.

However, no train drivers passing through the station that day reported a collision and British Transport Police found no damage to any carriages.

There were no CCTV footage or eyewitness reports of Mr Keogh outside or inside the station and his brother Michael said the 63-year-old "had no suicidal tendencies".

An inquest at Dartford Coroner's Court on Tuesday (September 23) found there was "insufficient evidence to record a verdict of suicide".

Coroner Christopher Sutton Mattocs said: "Mr Keogh's death may have been an accident but I cannot reach this verdict on the evidence.

"In the circumstances I am going to record an open verdict."

Mr Keogh was an alcoholic and a post-mortem examination found he was more than three times above the drink-driving limit on the night of his death.

He never married and lived alone in Southfields in London but spent a lot of his time in north Kent.

Speaking at the inquest, Michael Keogh said his brother was "a happy drunk" who "had never suffered from depression".

British Transport Police coroner's officer Kay Lane investigated Mr Keogh's death.

She said how Mr Keogh got on to the tracks "remains a mystery" but she believed he was already lying there when he was hit.

Miss Lane said: "At that time of night the lighting on the platform at Swanscombe is minimal so theoretically a train could travel through and not notice something on the tracks.

"The believed hypothesis is Mr Keogh was already lying on the tracks and the train driver did not see him."

She added there was nothing to suggest Mr Keogh had been pushed on to the tracks as CCTV footage did not show anyone in the station at the time.