Inquest finds Arran, aged 2, died of asphyxia
A jury of two men and four women at Cork City Coroners Court yesterday found that the toddler died at his home in Carrigtohill, Co Cork, on Wednesday February 4 as a result of asphyxia after a blind cord wrapped around his neck in an upstairs bedroom.
Presiding coroner Dr Myra Flynn Cullinane was told that on that date Arran had been sleeping upstairs while his mother, Gillian, her 10-month old daughter Alexandria, and then au pair Patricia Muller were downstairs.
At approximately 2.30pm Ms Malley explained that she heard Arran wake up and walk into his four-year-old brother Jude’s room and assumed he was watching a children’s DVD “as he liked to watch TV in the room” since moving house eight months earlier.
The court heard that after a short period she became concerned when there was no noise coming from the room her son was in and went upstairs to investigate.
She began calling out Arran’s name in case he was hiding “because it was a game we played”.
However, after entering the room she found her son lying motionless with a beaded cord from the window blind wrapped around his neck, his eyes closed and his face blue.
Ms Malley told the court that she ran downstairs with Arran to try to revive him, and asked Ms Muller to call the local emergency doctor who was the family GP, Dr Hugh Doran.
However, Ms Muller initially panicked at the sight of the motionless toddler and could not remember the address of the family’s home when she called, resulting in Ms Malley’s brother Trevor Beamish taking Arran in his car to meet the on-coming ambulance, which arrived at approximately 2.45pm.
The two-year-old was rushed to Cork University Hospital (CUH) in an attempt to save his life, but he died that afternoon.
Dr Doran said he immediately felt the injuries sustained by Arran where in line with the theory that he had accidentally hanged himself on the cord – an opinion which was supported by assistant State pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster who found “nothing of a suspicious nature” to suggest deliberate strangulation.
“There was no abnormality. It was asphyxia, but there was no suffering for the child,” she said.
Investigating gardaí Cathal Whelan and Liam O’Leary explained that when they inspected the scene the following day they found that a child the size of Arran would have easily been able to reach the blind cord regardless of where it was placed.
Due to the suspected cause of the injuries, investigators sought the advice of Dr Denis Woods, a consultant forensic engineer since 1979 to carry out a series of examinations on the blind cord.
Dr Woods explained to the court that EU safety standard EN13120 was drawn up in 2004, with amendments implemented on February 20, 2009, to inform people of the dangers of “looped” blind cords.
Among the key aspects of these standards were for safety warning signs to be placed in a “conspicuous” position on packaging.
However, after questioning from Malley family solicitor Tom Coughlan, Dr Woods confirmed these standards are only voluntary.
After 30 minutes of deliberation, the jury recorded a verdict of accidental death and recommended that the voluntary safety measures be immediately imposed and that detailed safety improvement information be made available for any family home with suspect blind cords already fitted.
