Deborah Sykes' Witness Statement
...left college about nine-thirty on Thursday evening. I can't be more exact than that, but I know I was worried that I might have missed my train. I talked to someone at the college for a few minutes before I left, Rob Neave, the security officer. He might remember the exact time. I walked down to the station. It was raining very heavily, and it was stormy. I didn't see anyone. The town centre was empty. I didn't see anyone on my way to the station. A couple of cars might have passed me, but the road was quiet.
I heard the sound of breaking glass as I crossed the bridge on Station Road. I didn't associate it with the station at first. When I got to the station, I went straight down to the platform. There was no one there, and there was no one on the other platform. I usually saw another woman there on Thursday evenings. She got on the Doncaster train that leaves just before mine comes in. She wasn't there, and I was worried that if the Doncaster train had gone, maybe mine had as well.
It was dark on the platform. There was something wrong with the light. When I looked up, I saw that it had been broken and I remembered the sound of breaking glass as I came over the bridge. I can't be sure that it was the sound of the platform light breaking, but I thought it was, and I was frightened because the person who'd done it must still have been in the station.
Then I saw him. I looked up the ramp that leads to the exit - it's the only way off the platform, there's no other way out - and I saw a man standing there. He was watching me. He looked big, not just tall, but big all over. I couldn't see his face. I was too far away, and he was silhouetted against the light. Then he began to walk down onto the platform...