A three-year-old was crushed to death beneath the wheels of a bin lorry as he watched the weekly collection just yards from his home, writes Phil Clee.

The tragedy took place in a Thame cul-de-sac minutes after Cain Stanton had been warned by the lorry driver to stay on the pavement, an Oxford inquest heard yesterday.

After reversing to pick up sacks of refuse, the lorry's crew climbed back on board, and it was only then that the driver glanced in his mirror and noticed the youngster lying in the road. Oxford Coroner Nicholas Gardiner was told Cain had died instantly in the accident, which took place in Pearce Way on March 6.

The lorry was owned by refuse firm Sita.

The driver, Anthony Manning, of Wittenham Close, Woodcote, near Reading, had worked for the company since last July.

All the vehicles were fitted with hazard lights and an 'beeper' signal which came on automatically during reversing manoeuvres, and these were working on the machine in question on the day. Angry scenes erupted as Mr Manning began to describe the fateful minutes before Cain died, when his father, roofer Mark Stanton, 29, stormed out.

Mr Manning said he had spotted the child watching them and warned him to stay on the pavement.

He said: "When I last saw him, he was on the path nearer the back.

"I checked both mirrors and the men got back in, and we moved off at walking place.

"I approached the bend and checked the mirror again and saw him lying in the road. It was the same small boy." The boy's mother, Anita Cowan, of nearby Lacey Drive, who ran to the scene, was described as "hysterical and inconsolable" as she discovered what had happened.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Gardiner said he accepted Mr Manning's version of events and that he had spoken to the boy to tell him to stay on the path.