The train driver jailed after the Purley rail crash 18 years ago has today had his conviction quashed.

Robert Morgan had admitted two counts of manslaughter following the crash in March 1989, but the Appeal Court today heard the warning signal he had passed was a well known safety hazard.

Five people were killed when the train from Littlehampton struck another, causing it to roll down an embankment. A further 87 people were injured.

Mr Morgan, from Ferring, near Worthing, West Sussex, was jailed for six months - with an additional 12-month suspended sentence - but that term was cut to four months by the Appeal Court in October 1990.

The 64-year-old, who suffered injuries in the crash meaning his memory of the incident was not complete, argued his conviction was not safe' thanks to later research into the accident.

An investigation into the rail crash showed how the signalling system had been "passed at danger" four times in the five years before the 1989 accident.

And even when further safety measures were installed there was a similar signalling fault in June 1991.

Rail authorities have since added more stringent safety measures, and no further episodes have occurred.

The court heard had Mr Morgan known the full facts of the case he would never had admitted manslaughter meaning he would have faced a trial by jury.

Quashing Mr Morgan's conviction Lord Justice Latham remarked that had a jury known the state of the signalling system they may have been unlikely to convict Mr Morgan.

He said: "These facts would all be matters which the jury would have taken into account when assessing the level of fault. There is no way we can say, accordingly, that this conviction is safe."

But the judge noted Mr Morgan had made a mistake when he bypassed a red warning signal, but that it was "an accident waiting to happen".