Family of County Antrim teenager: 'We will never have closure, no matter what we do'

A County Antrim father spoken of how difficult it is to come to terms with the circumstances surrounding his son's death.

Connor Marron was struck by a train in London after a night watching darts at Alexandra Palace on January 2nd.

The coroner's inquest this week returned an open verdict - meaning that the death is treated as suspicious - but there's insufficient evidence to establish exactly what happened.

While the family of the 19-year-old from Ahoghill welcomed that verdict, they still don't know the circumstances that led to Connor's tragic death.

"The opportunities were there for us to have closure," says Connor's father Fergal.

"But we will never ever have closure, no matter what we do."

Fergal believes his son had no reason to be near the tracks where his son was killed.

"We're not sure what happened to him, whether he was mugged. But we're sure something happened," he says.

"He ran away from something. There's no way he left his friend and then 10 minutes later he's gone."

After the incident at Hornsey station, following a night at the PD C World Darts Championship, Connor leaves behind grieving parents and a younger sister Caoimhe.

"Our fight for the last five months was all for our Conor. He's going to be missed...but the rest of our lives are all about Caoimhe," says an emotional Fergal.

He added that his family will cherish the time they had with their son, who always had a smile on his face.

"We have loads of memories. Pool, snooker, football - there wasn't a weekend when we weren't doing something together. We wouldn't change it.

"But if we were told we'd have another 20 years with him, we'd take it...we'd grab that," Fergal added.

Fergal says more could have been done to establish how Connor came to be at Hornsey train station.

"It just doesn't add up to us.

"Alexandra Palace - as we learnt at the inquest - had 82 cameras between the inside and outside of their premises. The police retrieved three of them.

"He left his mate about twenty to 12 to go and retrieve his phone. Once he goes out of view, we have no idea for about 45 minutes where he was, until about two seconds in front of a train around a mile away.

"Connor was on that railway track for about four seconds. For what reason?" Fergal asks.

"To me, he had to be running away from something. There was nothing else there."

When contacted by Downtown Radio/Cool FM News, the British Transport Police provided the following statement.

“Every death on the railway is a tragedy, and our thoughts remain with the Marron family as the Inquest into their son’s untimely death has concluded, it read.

“As is the case with any fatality, the full circumstances of the incident were subject to a detailed assessment by officers, who were satisfied there were no suspicious circumstances. Following concerns raised by the family that Mr Marron may have been victim to a crime shortly before his death, a senior detective travelled to Northern Ireland to meet with them and commissioned further enquiries into the incident. To date, there is still no evidence that Mr Marron was the victim of a crime or that there were any suspicious circumstances to his death.

“Following the concerns raised, we are conducting an independent, internal review into the handling of the case and will be reviewing the findings of Her Majesty’s Coroner in detail to establish any possible opportunities for improvement.”