Greater Manchester Police (GMP) did not contact British Transport Police (BTP) in the search for a missing man because of fears over long delays, an inquest has heard.

An inquest into the death of Bradley Lomax, 30, who died after being struck by a train in Westhoughton on March 24 last year, is taking place at Bolton Coroners' Court.

Bradley had left his partner Demi Norris’ house in Westhoughton after telling her “he was going to go jump in front of a train".

She had called the police because he was said to have been acting aggressively.

PC Gradwell and PC Le Blanc arrived at her house, but by that time Bradley had left.

They conducted a search of a nearby bridge over a railway line but could not see on to the rail itself because it was dark and the walls were too high.

GMP Sergeant Jessica Prudence, who was on duty at the time, told the inquest that officers “never enter a live railway".

She said that they have to contact BTP instead.

The inquest heard that contacting BTP was one of the “golden hour tasks”, a series of actions that must be taken as soon as possible when a person is missing to have the best chance of finding them.

BTP was not contacted before Bradley was struck by a train shortly before 11pm.

Sergeant Louis Counsell supervised the GMP dispatch office on that night.

He said: “I asked one of the radio operators to do it.

“Fridays and Saturdays are quite busy – it wasn’t any busier than any other Friday, but it was a busy night.”

Coroner Alexander Frodsham said that in a previous statement from PS Counsell, he said that they “do not have a special number for BTP but have to use the same number as the general public".

PS Counsell said that at the time he thought this was the case, but the inquest heard that GMP does have a priority number for BTP.

PS Counsell said: “I learned that we do get prioritised.

“The reason I wrote that is because when we have contacted BTP before we have to wait 10 to 15 minutes to get through.

“It’s still the same process, I’ve not had to do it in a while but I do see the priority log.

“Their way of answering our line is still the same, it still takes 10 to 15 minutes.”

Sally Clarke, a police dispatcher since 2004 was working the night of Bradley’s death.

She said that on the night, there were four radio operators for Bolton but they were split into two groups of two.

She also told the inquest that calls to BTP have taken 10 to 15 minutes to get through before.

Ms Clarke said: “Unfortunately, it has been that often in the past and you are off the radio when you are on that call.

“You can’t do both.”

The coroner pointed out that this would mean her “colleague has to look after the whole of [her] workload".

The inquest heard that in the end a call was not made from the dispatch office to BTP regarding the report about Bradley.

Ms Clarke, who no longer works for the police, said: “I should have shouted, I should have said to Louis that I couldn’t do it.”

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GMP Inspector Matthew McClean said that he “would have liked to know” that staff thought calls would take this long to be answered “earlier”.

BTP Inspector Shazia Moran said that if they had been contacted, they would have informed Network Rail and a “caution” order may have been put in place.

The inquest heard that a caution order would have informed train drivers to reduce their speed while going through the area so they would have more time to brake.

Inspector Moran said that the belief that dispatchers would face a 10 to 15 minute delay “surprised her”.

She said: “It surprises me because I don’t believe it is accurate.

“I have looked at our call performance from that day and the average time was 14 seconds to 15 seconds to answer our calls.”

Counsel for the defence, Rebecca Sutton, asked if there had been a history of longer wait times.

Inspector Moran said: “I have covered the position I have been in for three years.

“The longest delay I can recall is one minute 55 for us.”