TWO company executives have been convicted of the manslaughter of a retired university professor who was crushed to death at a railway station in Rome.

Sally Baldwin died instantly when she was dragged into the revolving mechanism under a walkway at Tiburtina in 2003.

She stepped into a gap after a section was removed for maintenance.

Domenico Leti, 71, and Leonardo Casali, 32, directors of maintenance company OCS, were sentenced to 22 months and 18 months in jail respectively.

Neither will go to jail because, in Italian law, sentences under two years are suspended for first-time offenders,

Another director, Luana Lepore, was cleared of all charges.

During the two-year trial, the court heard that five panels were missing from the walkway, which was not properly fenced off. In a separate trial that ended in 2004, two OCS maintenance workers were convicted of manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm for not taking necessary measures to prevent people from using the walkway after a section had been removed.

The pair were sentenced to 20 months and 15 months in prison, but under a plea bargain, they did not serve any time.

Prof Baldwin was with her former husband, Jack, and another British tourist.

The 62-year-old was former director of the social policy research unit at York University.

A university spokesman said: "The loss of Sally Baldwin will continue to be felt by her many friends and colleagues at the University of York.

"Sally was feisty, forthright, wickedly funny and cared deeply about ordinary people."