Tragedy as Lily, two, is strangled by cord on window blind

A HEARTBROKEN father told an inquest today how his two year-old daughter died after being accidentally strangled by a cord on a window blind in her bedroom.

Andrew Kitterick's daughter Lily Isobel was strangled by a cord attached to a window blind at her home on Carr Street in Marsh, Huddersfield, on June 16.

He told an inquest in Huddersfield that his daughter was a ''lovely girl, a bright bubbly chatterbox, full of life.''

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He said that on the fateful evening he put her to bed at 7.15pm. Next to her bed was a roller blind fitted to the window.

After reading her a short story he or his wife, Johanna, lowered the blind before putting her to sleep. His wife went to check on her five minutes later and then he went in 15 minutes later.

He said: ''She was at the foot of the bed with the cord round her neck.'' After picking her up he found she was unresponsive and removed the cord from her body.

He shouted for help from neighbours and his wife and began to attempt to resuscitate her. An ambulance took her to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary but medics were unable to save her and she died just before 9pm.

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Sarah Broadbent, a neighbour, said she had often noticed Lily in her pyjamas on the windowsill "talking, as if she is putting on a show.''

On the evening of her death she said she was talking to her mother on the phone and saw Lily on the windowsill talking to herself and playing with the cord.

She said: ''I said: 'oh my God, she has got the blind cord which concerned me thought I thought it would be all right. I went in to make a cup of tea still on the phone to my mum.

"Two to three minutes later having finished my conversation I came back into the room and she was no longer on view. I presumed she had gone to bed.

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"Two to three minutes later I heard Lily's dad shouting for help. My instant reaction was that she had been playing with the cord.'' She added that she wished she had ''said something at the time but didn't want to interfere."

A post mortem revealed the cause of Lily's death to be asphyxia due to accidental self-strangulation.

West Yorkshire coroner Roger Whittaker said it was clear that sometimes Lily clambered on to the windowsill.

He said: "On this particular occasion she has taken hold of the cord, taken it by her left hand, and it is clear on the balance of probabilities, that she has slipped into it and the cord and gone round her neck and she has been unable to extricate herself. The cord has not broken to release her.

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"I believe it is important that lessons should be learned from this tragic incident. Members of the Press could promulgate the potential dangers of cords in bedrooms where young children can play with them and inadvertently repeat this.''

He said he would also be writing to the manufacturers of such cords to see whether the mechanisms can be made on a fail safe basis so that if a child becomes caught they can be let free.

Afterwards the parents said: "Lily was a beautiful, bright and happy child who loved life. She brought us so much joy and happiness and her loss has left us, our family and friends completely devastated.

"The tragic passing of Lily has been a terrible shock and has left a huge hole in our family. As parents we hope this will warn other parents and carers of children the dangers that blind cords can present in the home so that further tragedies can be avoided.''

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