Baby choked to death trapped in ‘unsafe’ cot
A BABY choked to death in a cot sold by a businessman who copied designs off the internet, a court heard yesterday.
Seven-month-old Oscar Abbey was found by his parents, caught in the side of his bed at their home in York.
During the course of the night on Nov 3 2016, he “wriggled his body” between gaps in the side of the cot that were not wide enough for his head to fit through, John Elvidge QC, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court. He added that he died from positional asphyxia, saying: “In effect, he choked to death. He was starved of oxygen.”
Craig Williams, the owner of the company that sold the bed to Charlie and Shannon Abbey, went on trial accused of gross negligence manslaughter.
Mr Elvidge told the jury: “He died because the cot bed was designed and constructed without any care or thought for the safety of the child who was sleeping in it.
“Oscar died because of the defendant’s gross negligence.”
Mr and Mrs Abbey bought the bed from Playtime Beds Ltd, Mr Williams’s Sheffield company, for £655, including delivery.
He said Mr Williams was the designer of the beds and “controlling mind” of the company, which had two other employees.
The company made bespoke MDF beds in a range of shapes, the jury heard, including the unit sold to the Abbeys that included the cot and a bed for Oscar’s twoand-a-half-year-old brother, Maxwell.
Mr Williams, 37, from Rotherham, told the couple it could be used by children of “any age”.
However, gaps in the front of the cot bed measured 116mm across and were bigger than industry standards allowing the tot’s body to slip through, the jury heard. Mr Abbey, 24, found his son the following morning facedown in the front of the cot. He said: “I instantly realised he’d gone. His head was stuck.”
Mr Williams denies manslaughter and fraud, in that after Oscar’s death he continued to trade, falsely claiming his beds complied with British Standards. Joseph Bruce, 30, a fellow employee, has admitted fraud. The trial continues.