The child killer in your home: The week the daughter of a shipping tycoon became the TWELFTH victim in two years killed after getting tangled in window blind cord

A pink rabbit sits at the end of Luis Edwards’s bed. Hanging on the wall are two photographs, one in a pink frame and one in a blue. The bunny used to sit at the foot of Luis’s twin sister Leah’s bed and it is her picture that hangs next to his.

They are an ever-present reminder of the little girl who died two years ago, in circumstances that will terrify all parents of young children.

The 17-month-old was strangled after becoming tangled up in the cord of a blind, of the kind that hangs in millions of British homes.

Tragedy: Leah Edwards was strangled by a window blind cord at 17 months

Trapped by the neck, the toddler had no means to free herself from the tightening cord. By the time she was found, it was too late. ‘We’d done everything we could to child-proof the room, but missed this one detail,’ her mother Joy Edwards, 37, told the Mail this week.

‘While it is lovely watching Luis grow up, of course, you wonder about Leah.

‘When he started saying his first sentences or trying to draw a picture, I thought: “What would Leah have done?”

‘She was smaller and shyer than Luis, less adventurous, but a very bright little girl and probably would have hit these milestones earlier. To watch Luis fills me with joy — but also such sadness.’

The agony of what might have been, the memories, the questions — all have been thrust back to the forefront of Joy’s mind this week after the death of another child in similarly tragic circumstances.

Alexandra Lucy Hoegh, the three-year-old daughter of Norwegian shipping tycoon Morten Hoegh, one of Britain’s richest men, was found lifeless in her cot earlier this week by her mother Dana, 37.

It is thought Alexandra had been playing with the cord of a window blind when she became tangled. Neighbours described how Mrs Hoegh ran screaming into the street outside her £12 million home in West London, begging for help.

Victim: Emily Warner was two years old when she died in similar circumstances where a blind cord got caught around her neck

The agony of this mother — finding her tiny daughter caught up in the strings of a household item that appears so benign — is unimaginable. But, sadly, she is far from alone.

Since 1999, there have been at least 25 deaths of children who have been tangled in the cords of blinds — and that’s just those the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has recorded. The true figure is likely to be far higher.

Twelve of the deaths occurred in the past two years. The youngest child was one year old and the eldest four. Half of the victims were under two.

So why are so many children dying? And what is being done to stop other families enduring the same dreadful fate?

Window blinds — particularly blackout ones — are popular in nurseries to help babies sleep in the summer months.

Most come with a cleat — a wooden or metal fitting, much like those found on boats for coiling up rope — that can be secured to a wall, and around which the cord can be wrapped. But these are often ignored and the cord is left to hang loosely.

It is not difficult to see why a curious, wakeful toddler might grab a cord, slip and then lack the agility and co-ordination required to free themselves if it gets caught round their neck.

But why isn’t more being done to warn parents of this lethal danger in children’s bedrooms?

It is a question that has haunted Joy Edwards and her husband Andrew, 49, ever since Leah’s death in October 2010 and has led them to campaign for raised awareness among parents.

Danger: The increase in the number of deaths involving blind cords similar to this one has led to campaigners calling on them to be banned

‘When I read about the latest death, all the emotions came rushing back to me,’ says Joy. ‘I cannot believe that this is still happening to children.

‘Tragically, many parents are still not reading the instructions or using the cleats. I am not saying this is what happened in the most recent case, but the awful fact is that looped window blinds combined with curious toddlers are an accident waiting to happen.’

Joy and Andrew, who live near Maldon, Essex, where they run a custom body car parts business, thought they had taken every precaution to keep their four children — Emily, seven, Christian, ten, and the twins — safe and well.

Joy still struggles to describe the day Christian came running into his parents’ room at 7.15am, saying his baby sister had something round her neck.

‘He was seven at the time — you can imagine how hard that was for him,’ says Joy.

‘The twins had woken at 5.30am and I had given them their bottles of milk, put their music on and then put them back down to sleep for another few hours.

‘In that time, we think Leah had woken up and tried to climb out of her cot. Luis had done this a few days earlier and we think she was trying to copy him.

‘The irony is that she was the more sensitive, shy twin — he was the adventurous one.

‘She’d chosen the end of the cot that was by the window and the blind. We will never know exactly how it happened.

‘Andrew and I tried to resuscitate her and called 999. She was taken to Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, but pronounced dead shortly after her arrival.

‘It was devastating. You always go over the what-ifs in your mind — what if I had got up earlier or we’d never had a window blind?’

The what-ifs haunt Jamie and Tracey Warner, too. Their daughter Emily was two when she was strangled by a blind cord at their home in Royston, Hertfordshire, in August last year.

‘Emmie was such a wonderful little girl,’ says Jamie, who works for a chemical manufacturer.

‘She had been put to bed, but must have stood on the end of her bed frame to look out of the window and somehow the cord became wrapped around her neck.

‘I found her hanging unconscious on her tiptoes — it was probably only moments after it happened. I really thought she was just looking out of the window until I got close.’

Emmie spent three months in hospital with severe brain damage before she died.

‘As parents, we thought we had done everything we could to make our house safe — we had covers on the electricity plugs, locking catches on the cupboards and I had even taken the drawers out of a chest in Emily’s bedroom to stop her climbing up.’

The couple, who have a five-year-old son James, have become active campaigners for greater awareness of the dangers of window blind cords. They are bewildered by the recurrence of this tragedy.

‘I can’t believe this is happening again,’ says Jamie. ‘There have been so many deaths, yet the message doesn’t seem to be getting through.

‘We did lots of interviews, posted leaflets around our area and gave talks in schools.

‘Apart from campaigning, I am at a loss to know what can be done. Parents just simply have to be aware that these cords can kill.’

It is a message that RoSPA, along with the trade organisation representing manufacturers and sellers of blinds, the British Blind and Shutter Association and others have been trying to hammer home with the joint Make It Safe campaign, with thousands of leaflets and safety devices handed out nationwide.

Home danger: There has been 12 deaths in the past two years where children under four have been strangled by cords of venetian blinds

As it stands, European safety standards regulations require that all looped blind cords come with some kind of safety device to address the issue of loose cords.

This can be a cleat attached to the wall, so the cords can be safely tucked away, or a break connector that, as its name suggests, causes the cord to break when a weight pulls on it.

The problem with cleats is that they can easily go unused.

From early next year, the European safety standard will be bolstered to ensure all blinds come fitted with break connectors.

But there is still a question mark over whether this will provide an adequate solution.

As Joy Edwards asks, who determines what weight is applied before the break cord mechanism is triggered? Leah was a small child, much lighter than Luis. Would her death have been prevented?

Michael Corley of RoSPA says that officials will monitor the situation closely.

‘It’s simply not acceptable for a product that’s so widely available to be so potentially dangerous,’ he says.

Whatever changes come, it is clear there remains a danger in the form of the millions of existing blinds with looped cords hanging in homes around the country.

‘There are at least 200 million fitted and we don’t know what proportion of those are safe,’ says Mr Corley.

‘These accidents are eminently preventable, so I would say look around your house — it only takes five minutes.’

This plea is echoed by Dr Joe Brierley, a consultant in paediatric intensive care at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital.

‘As an intensive care doctor I have looked after children who have died from this very problem,’ he says. ‘It’s devastating for the families involved.’

‘Toddlers love to explore. They go looking in nooks and crannies and because they’re so small they will put their head through a loop — then, as they try to get out, the loop strangles them.

‘Often the parent won’t hear any noise because the cord is squashing the voice box. Death can happen very, very quickly — within minutes. It is very sad.’

Campaign: Harrison Joyce's parents threw their blinds in the bin the day their son died and launched a campaign for 'Harrison's Law', hoping to ban the sale of looped cords on curtains and blinds in the UK

Look around a paediatrician’s house, he says, and it would be unusual to find blinds or curtains with loose cords for the very reason that they are all too familiar with the dangers.

‘When you see a family go through something like this it is awful,’ says Dr Brierley.

‘The most important thing is to prevent this — parents just need to take a little moment to look around, and not just in their own homes.

‘With Christmas approaching, children might be going to stay with grandparents. Check their windows, too.’

In Lichfield, Staffordshire, businessman Scott Joyce and his partner Rachel Lawlor wish with all their hearts they had known the danger hanging at their window.

They threw their blinds in the bin on the day their son Harrison, three, died in February 2010.

Rachel, 39, had popped upstairs for just a few moments to check her computer, leaving Harrison sleeping on the sofa in the living room. She was alerted by the cries of her eldest son Brandon, now 15.

‘He was 12 at the time,’ says Scott, 40. ‘It made him grow up very quickly. Our lives were ruined — it just destroys the family.

‘Everybody says their child is special, but Harrison was a super special boy, a little footballer, brilliant brother, older than his age. That loss is what we now have to live with.’

Solace for this family, as with the Edwardses and the Warners, has come from trying to make a difference, trying to ensure no other family suffers as they have.

Harrison’s death was followed by the death of another toddler, Lillian Bagnall-Lambe, aged 16 months, in Stafford, just five days later.

The two infant deaths led to Andrew Haigh, coroner for South Staffordshire, urging the Government to look again at existing safety measures.

‘The frequency of deaths of this kind is more of a problem than we would anticipate or expect,’ he said.

‘Is there any way to more strictly enforce the existing British standard as to what should happen with blind cords? If not, the next step is to ban looped blind cords.’

There are other alternatives, such as blinds that work using a spring operation or a battery- operated motor.

Scott Joyce believes a ban is the only solution. In the wake of his son’s death, he and Rachel set up a charity called Harrison’s Law, campaigning against the sale of loop corded blinds in the UK.

‘These deaths are going to keep happening until these blinds are banned,’ says Scott.

‘We have always said that we want cords gone all together and that is the only way to stop the problem.’