LUXURY fashion brand Hugo Boss has admitted breaking health and safety laws after an unfixed mirror fell over and killed a four-year-old boy.
Austen Harrison, from Crawley, died when the 19-stone mirror fell on his head as he played with it while his father was trying on a suit at the brand's outlet in Bicester.
Yesterday at Banbury Magistrates' Court, Hugo Boss, represented by Jonathan Laidlaw QC, pleaded guilty to two breaches of health and safety laws.
The incident on June 4 2013 left Austen with irreparable brain damage and his life support machine was turned off four days later in hospital.
At Austen's inquest in March, a jury recorded a narrative verdict.
The jury found: "The mirror came to fall on Austen after he moved the wings, causing the unfixed mirror to become unstable.
"The jury believes that the mirror should have been fixed to the wall and that the wall should have been reinforced. We do not believe the mirror was fixed to the wall."
Oxford Senior Coroner Darren Salter said it was an "accident waiting to happen".
Austen was with his parents, Simon and Irina Harrison, when he was injured at the Bicester outlet village in Oxfordshire on June 4 2013 at around 8.30pm.
Hugo Boss is due to be sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on June 19.
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