Playgroup child's death was accident, police find

POLICE said last night that the death of a six-month-old girl who had been left alone asleep at a playgroup was the result of a 'tragic' accident involving a four-year-old boy and the child.

Detectives in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, spent the day interviewing children as young as three, and discovered it was an accident involving a boy not related to the victim.

The boy entered for only a minute or two the room where the baby was sleeping, but it was long enough to upset her pushchair and tip her on to the floor.

The baby, whose name has not been released, was found with serious head injuries on the floor of an office at the Oldbrook Community Centre on Wednesday. She was taken to hospital but died shortly afterwards. Staff tried for nearly an hour to save the child.

Doctors at Milton Keynes General Hospital said that she had multiple skull fractures. An inquest will be opened in the city on Monday. A post-mortem examination by Dr Dick Shepherd, a Home Office pathologist, revealed that the baby had died of serious head injuries.

The baby's mother had left her asleep in a pushchair alone in the office while she looked after other children. An older brother and sister were also at the playgroup in an adjoining room.

Although the baby was not strapped into the pushchair, staff said she was checked at regular intervals and was seen sleeping only a few minutes before being found critically injured on the floor.

The discovery was made by one of the full-time playgroup assistants. Police said that the baby was lying two or three feet from the pushchair on a plastic tiled floor.

According to police the doors to the building were normally locked when all the children had arrived. Three full-time staff and two parents were present in the nursery at the time and have been interviewed by police.

Specially trained officers yesterday interviewed 26 children, aged between three and five, who were attending the playgroup.

The child's parents were yesterday said to be 'extremely traumatised' by the baby's death and the mother was receiving medical treatment. Last night the four-year-old boy and his parents were being counselled by specially trained officers to help them come to terms with the trauma.