The Daily Mail - Cot Backed by Jools Oliver is a time bomb, warns mother whose baby choked to death

A mother told yes­ter­day how she found her seven-week- old daugh­ter dead in a celebrity-en­dorsed cot which she branded a ‘time bomb’.

Es­ther Rose­man, 39, sobbed as she de­scribed to an in­quest how new­born Grace was pur­ple in the face with her head hang­ing over the side of the crib.

She said she screamed to her hus­band: ‘Grace is dead.’

The baby was taken to hos­pi­tal where doc­tors bat­tled in vain to re­vive her.

The cot in­volved was a Bednest. It can be at­tached to the par­ents’ bed and has re­tractable sides that can be pulled down or kept half­way up as in Grace’s case.

Some­how the baby man­aged to get her head over the edge. Be­cause she was so young, she did not have the strength to lift her­self off. Her air sup­ply was re­stricted and she choked to death.

Some­how the baby man­aged to get her head over the edge. Be­cause she was so young, she did not have the strength to lift her­self off. Her air sup­ply was re­stricted and she choked to death.

Af­ter Grace’s death in April last year, coroner Pene­lope Schofield is­sued a Reg­u­la­tion 28 form about the cot, de­signed to pre­vent fur­ther deaths. The Bednest, used by par­ents across the UK, is still avail­able on­line for £199, how­ever. In the past it has been rec­om­mended by high-pro­file fig­ures in­clud­ing celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s wife Jools and soap star Tamzin Outh­waite.

Mrs Rose­man, from Hay­wards Heath, West Sus­sex, told the in­quest she was given the sec­ond-hand Bednest by a friend. There were no in­struc­tions, no warn­ings on the crib and a man­ual was not avail­able on­line. She said she saw im­ages of the cot, once pro­moted by the Na­tional Child­birth Trust, with the sides half down, which led her to be­lieve it was safe to use that way.

In­struc­tions re­ferred to at the in­quest state that a par­ent should not leave a child in the Bednest un­su­per­vised if the side is half down.

In­struc­tions re­ferred to at the in­quest state that a par­ent should not leave a child in the Bednest un­su­per­vised if the side is half down.

Mrs Rose­man said: ‘I didn’t have those in­struc­tions... I didn’t see any risk. If I had known for one mo­ment, in the room or out of the room, she was ca­pa­ble of what she did, there’s no way I would have slept with that side half down.

‘Ev­ery day since it hap­pened I’ve won­dered why I didn’t see how un­safe it was. I com­fort my­self a bit to think that it’s clear that the whole of NCT and the whole of Bednest didn’t see it ei­ther. I sup­pose as Gra­cie de­vel­oped, it was just be­com­ing a time bomb.’

On the day of the tragedy she had been due to take her daugh­ter out with a friend but the plan was can­celled. Her bar­ris­ter hus­band Gideon was ill in bed with a bug.

Af­ter check­ing on Grace at around 8.30am, Mrs Rose­man re­turned 90 min­utes later to find her daugh­ter life­less with a mark on her neck. She screamed as she called 999. Mr Rose­man said: ‘I saw Es­ther hold­ing Grace and ob­vi­ously she was gone.’ Asked if he ever had reser­va­tions about the crib, he said: ‘There were no rea­sons. It’s just an in­nocu­ous ob­ject. It’s a cot.’ Peter Nor­man, com­pany sec­re­tary of Bednest, told the in­quest he was ‘ com­pletely shocked’ to hear of Grace’s case, adding: ‘It did not seem fea­si­ble a baby would do that.’

Af­ter check­ing on Grace at around 8.30am, Mrs Rose­man re­turned 90 min­utes later to find her daugh­ter life­less with a mark on her neck. She screamed as she called 999. Mr Rose­man said: ‘I saw Es­ther hold­ing Grace and ob­vi­ously she was gone.’ Asked if he ever had reser­va­tions about the crib, he said: ‘There were no rea­sons. It’s just an in­nocu­ous ob­ject. It’s a cot.’ Peter Nor­man, com­pany sec­re­tary of Bednest, told the in­quest he was ‘ com­pletely shocked’ to hear of Grace’s case, adding: ‘It did not seem fea­si­ble a baby would do that.’

Asked if the firm was do­ing all it could to en­sure the prod­uct’s safety, he said: ‘That’s ex­actly what we’ve striven to do and strive to do.’

Henry Wit­comb QC, for the fam­ily, re­ferred to a re­port by West Sus­sex Trad­ing Stan­dards which la­belled the Bednest a ‘dan­ger­ous prod­uct’.

Henry Wit­comb QC, for the fam­ily, re­ferred to a re­port by West Sus­sex Trad­ing Stan­dards which la­belled the Bednest a ‘dan­ger­ous prod­uct’.

Mr Wit­comb said: ‘You do not ac­cept the find­ing?’ Mr Nor­man replied: ‘ We have prob­lems with that re­port.’

Asked if he ac­cepted that the Bednest could be a ‘po­ten­tially lethal risk’, Mr Nor­man said an NCT in­ves­ti­ga­tion had found there was a ‘small but plau­si­ble risk’, but there had been ‘con­flict­ing’ ex­pert ev­i­dence.

Af­ter the hear­ing, the fam­ily’s so­lic­i­tor, Jill Green­field, a part­ner at Fieldfisher said: ‘What the fam­ily have been through al­ready is hor­rific.

‘To have to give ev­i­dence in court like this is com­pound­ing their im­mense dis­tress.’

The in­quest, at Hor­sham, West Sus­sex, con­tin­ues.