Mother tried to save child crushed by electronic gate

Six-year-old Semelia Campbell was playing with a friend near her home on Carnival Place, Moss Side, Manchester, on Monday night when the motorised gate closed on her.

Her mother Judith Gilroy was among the first on the scene and she tried in vain to free her daughter who was pinned against a brick post.

Ms Gilroy yesterday visited the spot where the accident happened as family and friends tearfully laid flowers.

Reliving her nightmare, Ms Gilroy, 41, said she tried pressing the electronic button to open the gate, and also tried to use a remote control, but neither worked.

"This should never have happened," she said. "The gates are chained up now but they were not secured. We tried everything we could to free her.

"She was my whole life, I don't know how I will go on without her. I'm just angry and devastated really.

"The gate was not finished, it shouldn't have happened."

The gate led on to a building site which is close to the Maine Place development where Semelia's family moved three weeks ago.

Many of the houses are still under construction.

The schoolgirl was freed when police broke off an electronic box. She died from her injuries a short time later in hospital.

It is thought Semelia suffered a heart attack as well as massive crush injuries.

Greater Manchester Police and the Health and Safety Executive launched an investigation to discover what happened as the little girl and her best friend Jadon Skeritt, also aged six, played near the gate at 7.30pm on Monday.

Flowers, toys and tributes were left near the gate outside the housing complex.

Earlier this year, developer Faulkner Gates Ltd, of Romsey, Hants, was fined 80,000 and ordered to pay 40,000 legal costs after nine-year-old Jason Keet was crushed to death by a set of electronic gates in Poole, Dorset.