16th June 2008

Toddler, 3, dies after pond fall
TRAGEDY: The home in Crown Lane where Ethan Read fell into a pond

A three-year-old boy from Bury St Edmunds has died after falling into a garden pond.
Ethan Read-Marsden was rushed by ambulance to West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury, on Tuesday morning after falling into a garden pond while visiting family in Crown Lane, Coney Weston.

Ethan's mother desperately tried to rususcitate her son with advice from ambulance control over the telephone and when paramedics arrived on the scene they took over.

He later died in hospital.

An air ambulance also attended the scene but was not involved in the rescue, as it was decided it would be too difficult to resuscitate him in the helicopter.

Police are investigating the incident, which happened at 10.40am, and a spokeswoman for Suffolk Police said: "As is standard procedure in these circumstances, police have attended the property and are carrying out a thorough investigation to establish what happened.

"The death is being treated as unexplained – it has been referred to the coroner and a post mortem examination will be conducted in due course."

The Rev David Messer, who becomes rector of Coney Weston, Stanton, Hopton, Market Weston and Barningham on November 8, said: "It has been a great shock to the local community and it's a great tragedy that it has happened.

"On a personal and community level we will support the family in whichever way we can and they will be in our thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time."

A spokesman for The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) said: "About eight children drown in garden ponds each year, with most of them happening in ponds belonging to family or friends.

"Because of this, gardens should always be checked before children are allowed to play outside to avoid fatal consequences."
 

 

 

 

Toddler 'drowned in pool as her foster parents partied'

 

A toddler who had been taken into care died after being found floating in her foster parents' swimming pool.

Anna Hider, 17 months, was discovered unconscious in the water by the couple at their home in Hampshire on

 Sunday evening.

She was taken to the Queen Alexandra Hospital in nearby Portsmouth, but was pronounced dead an hour later.

 

Last night, Anna's devastated parents blamed the decision to take their daughter into care for her death.

 

It is believed the foster family were entertaining guests at a party at the house when the tragedy unfolded.

The case again throws the spotlight on to the care system and the apparent ease with which children can be

taken from their birth parents.

 

It is less than a week since a Daily Mail special report outlined how dozens of children are allegedly being

taken from their parents to be placed for adoption, often on the back of the flimsiest of allegations and,

at times, mere hearsay.

 

Anna, her seven-year-old sister, and her 13-year-old brother were taken into care last year.

The girls had been placed with separate foster families while the boy has been living in a care home.

 

Last night, their mother, Emma Hider, told the Mail how she had been fighting for Anna's return when

she died.

 

Mrs Hider, 31, from Paulsgrove in Portsmouth, said: "I got a phone call last night saying that Anna was in hospital.

 

'The next thing I knew, she was dead. They told me over the phone as I was on my way into the hospital.

 

"I'm angry and I want the truth. I want to know how my beloved daughter ended up face down in someone's swimming pool. I just cannot understand how she is dead."

 

Anna had been made the subject of an interim care order, which precedes a full care order and gives local authorities the power to share or take full parental responsibility for a child or children.

 

Mrs Hider, who is unemployed, said she was allowed to see Anna every weekday and spoke to her on the phone at weekends. She added that she never missed a visit.

 

She described how Anna "loved animals" and was "always laughing and interested in the world around her".

Mrs Hider went on: "I want everyone to know what social services are like. If Anna was still in my care she would be alive now."

 

She said social services had not allowed her to break the news to her other two children, who have different fathers.

 

Anna's father, Clyde Massiah, 45, had split up with Mrs Hider and lives in Oswestry in Shropshire.

Mr Massiah, also unemployed, said he believed the foster family were entertaining guests at a party when Anna woke up and walked downstairs to the swimming room.

 

He added: "They [the foster parents] have got plenty of money - and caring is supposed to be their job."

The couple refused to discuss the circumstances surrounding their children being taken into care.

 

But a neighbour told the Mail the children were taken away last summer, after concerns were raised at the school of one of the older children.

 

A spokesman for Portsmouth City Council, which is responsible for adoption in the city, refused to comment on Anna's care history, or what led her to be taken from her mother.

 

But councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, the leader of the council, offered "sincere condolences" to Anna's family.

 

He added: "In Portsmouth, we make every effort to keep children with their natural parents-Care proceedings are taken only when there's strong evidence that these are in the child's best interests."

The Mail has repeatedly highlighted the secrecy surrounding care and adoption proceedings. Parents have had their children taken away after being judged not "clever" enough to raise them, or even because of financial hardship.

 

This month the Mail also revealed how some councils are being offered bonuses worth as much as £2million over three years if they meet targets to raise the number of adoptions by 50 per cent.

 

Since the article around 100 readers have contacted us saying their children had been taken without good reason.

 

Labour's adoption targets were intended to lift more older children out of care.

 

But critics say councils, encouraged by the promise of extra cash, have merely earmarked those children who were easiest to place in adoptive homes - babies and toddlers - while the older children remained in care. In the year to March 2006, there were 3,700 adoptions from care in England.

Across the UK, there are around 5,000 children waiting for adoption, and 80,000 in the care of local authorities - two thirds of whom will be placed with foster parents.

A spokesman for Hampshire Police said initial investigations into Anna's death suggested a "tragic accident".

A post-mortem will be conducted and an inquest has been opened and adjourned.