Boy, 2, died after fall from window

6:35am Friday 20th April 2007

A two-year-old boy plunged 30 feet to his death after climbing through a bedroom window, an inquest heard.

The moments leading to Adam Golding Brown's death were recounted by his fiveyear- old sister Sophie who desperately tried to pull him back by his legs.

In a police interview, Sophie told officers how Adam climbed on to her bed and then pulled himself to the window sill above. Their three-year-old brother Connor opened the window and Adam leant out, the inquest heard.

Det Con John Dudley read out a transcript of Sophie's interview. She said: "He was upside down and I was trying to hold his legs but my hands were slippery and his feet just slipped outside of my hands."

Sophie said their mother, 33- year-old Heidi Golding, heard Adam screaming as he fell and rushed outside in her nightdress to find him lying by the back door.

Steven Page, Ms Golding's boyfriend, got blankets to cover the boy who was wearing a white babygrow and nappy, and called an ambulance.

The accident happened around 9.30pm on July 10 last year at Ms Golding's home in Timberleys, Littlehampton.

Adam was transferred to King's College Hospital, London, where he died from his injuries nine days later. He had suffered multiple skull fractures and brain damage.

Barman Tony Brown, also 33, had spent the weekend with his children before returning them to his ex-wife, Ms Golding. He said they had enjoyed time together at his home in Brighton.

Mr Brown got a phone call from Ms Golding around an hour after the accident and he went to see his son in hospital.

Heavily pregnant Ms Golding, originally from Germany, was at the inquest but did not speak.

West Sussex coroner Roger Stone recorded a verdict of accidental death. He said Adam died of "catastrophic"

injuries and had not known the risk he took by climbing on to the window ledge.

Mr Stone said: "I am touched and I found it remarkable the five-year-old sister should give so clear and honest an account.

"Perhaps we should all wish that this will not remain with her."

Mr Brown has created an online memorial to his son on the website Gone Too Soon.

It says: "Adam was a lovely little boy with a lot of character always smiling and happy. He was very much loved by all, especially his daddy as he was a daddy's boy at heart.

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