Dad warned pit death boy Xander Shaw
Wednesday 9th June 2010, 3:23PM BST.
A seven-year-old boy who died after falling into a slurry pit on a Shropshire farm had been warned by his father beforehand to stay away from it because it was “deadly,” an inquest jury heard today.
Xander Shaw had been playing with his sister Antonia in the farm grounds when he went missing on July 24 last year.
His body was found after a frantic 30 minute search in a slurry pit in a barn at the farm where his father, Darren, worked.
Mr Shaw, of Shirlett, near Broseley, told the inquest in Bridgnorth of the moment they discovered his son.
“Xander’s eyes were partly closed and glazed and I could tell he was gone. But we couldn’t give up hope,” he said.
Mr Shaw had been shifting slurry towards the pit before the incident but had been on a coffee break when Xander went missing.
In an interview read out at the hearing, Antonia, who was aged 10 at the time, said her father had warned the pair of them not to go near the slurry pit at Keeper’s Holding, near Broseley.
She said the pit looked like a concrete floor and said her father had told her it was deadly.
Members of the jury were told how the boy was taken by air ambulance to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford but had been declared dead shortly after his arrival despite attempts to resuscitate him.
Consultant forensic pathologist Doctor James Lucas said he had found slurry in Xander’s mouth, throat and stomach.
He told the inquest Xander would have lost consciousness within seconds and would have died after several minutes.
Xander was a pupil at Broseley Church of England School and after his death last summer, headteacher Jonathan Pygott described the youngster as a lively, confident and extremely bright boy.
Mr Pygott said the school had been left devastated.
The inquest continues.
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