Mystery of tot’s death

HAPPIER times . . . Claire Smith and son Dallas

Mum’s horror moment

A DEVASTATED mum told an inquest about the tragic moment she found her son dead only hours after celebrating his third birthday.

Little Dallas Jayden William Smith had gone to sleep at 7.30pm in the room he shared with his six-year-old sister Madison at their home in Rochdale Road, Royton, on January 26, 2008.

When his mother Claire Smith (35) tried to wake him the next morning, she was horrified to find the little boy’s lifeless body face-down on the bed.

She said: “I thought I was having a bad dream — I remember screaming.

“I pulled off the covers and his legs were all mottled and purple.

“I started rubbing his legs, trying to find a warm spot to bring him back to life.

“His hands were gripped, his teeth clenched and his eyes staring.

“I shouted ‘he’s dead.’”

Giving evidence, she said daughter Madison only recently revealed that she had witnessed her brother throwing himself around the bed, shaking, with his arms flopping to the side.

She had tried to comfort Dallas but had become frightened so went downstairs to her mother and asked to sleep with her that night.

Ms Smith said: “Madison said it was her fault because she hadn’t asked anyone to come and help.

“She feels guilty and obviously blames herself.”

Sitting at Oldham County Court, a 10-person jury heard Ms Smith describe Dallas as a healthy, active boy, who was never ill and dreamed of becoming a policeman.

She told the inquest how two weeks before his death, the family had all begun to feel tired and unwell.

Dallas was constantly sleeping, hard to wake up and had lost his appetite.

However, she simply attributed that to a busy Christmas, the fact he had just started nursery and that she thought he was coming down with a cold.

Ms Smith said: “We were all very lethargic, would go to bed in the afternoon and be in bed by 6pm.

“I couldn’t see why because we hadn’t over-exerted ourselves.”

She said the fortnight before Dallas’s death, there was a smell of gas in her back garden which she believed came from the kitchen of a neighbour who was having a new central heating system installed.

She said she didn’t think the smell was coming from her privately rented Victorian terrace as her boiler was situated in the children’s upstairs back bedroom.

The jury heard how Ms Smith said her boiler, which was switched off before going to bed, always seemed to be breaking down. She told the jury that in 2006, handyman Patrick Henry had argued with landlord Colin Reed about installing a new one.

She said: “Patrick said Mr Reed should buy a new boiler.

“Mr Reed said he wouldn’t buy a new boiler, he’d have new controls fitted to it.

“The last thing Mr Henry did was put new controls on the boiler in November, 2006.

“That’s when he had the argument.”

She said after that, Mr Reed had said he was getting a British Gas service contract, and that a British Gas man had visited her home.

Proceeding.