A major investigation started today after a disabled boy was throttled by the security bars of a bed designed to protect him.

Four-year-old Thomas Batt, who had cerebral palsy, was found hanging from a gap in the steel bars which were around the edge of the bed to stop him falling out.

Although the 100mm gap allowed Thomas to squeeze his body through, he was strangled when his head got stuck, an inquest heard. Now Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner has written to Barnet Healthcare NHS Trust, which provided the bed, asking it to investigate. Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Gardiner said: "This is a matter to which I have drawn the attention of the authorities. Perhaps a similar tragedy can be avoided."

Thomas's mother Elizabeth Batt, who is still struggling to come to terms with last June's tragedy, told Oxford Coroner's Court yesterday that she had feared the gap could be a problem.

The divorced mum-of-two, of Eton Close, Witney, said: "I discovered Thomas hanging through the bars one night and realised there was a problem. But there was no mention when the bed was delivered that there would be any danger, I only found out much later on." Mrs Batt told the inquest that she had put Thomas to bed at about 8.45pm and had checked on him regularly until about 12.30pm when she had gone to bed. She found his body in the morning.

Mrs Batt said: "I could see that he was through the bars with his toes partly touching the floor but not flat on the floor. He had been trying to hold himself there, but could not pull himself back up.

"I got him back on the bed, but his lips were blue and I feared the worst."

Despite frantic attempts to revive him, Thomas was pronounced dead at the scene. Pathologist Dr Colene Bowker, of the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, said Thomas, a pupil at Springfield School in Witney, died from asphyxia.

The inquest heard that the family had moved to Witney last year from the Barnet area to be near Thomas's grandparents.

Jan Tipton, a senior nurse at Hernes House, a respite centre for disabled children in Summertown, Oxford, said: "We decided there was a real possibility of something like this happening and withdrew all the beds we were concerned about. For a while, we were nursing children on mattresses on the floor. We have now bought wooden beds."

Barnet Healthcare NHS Trust was due to issue a statement later today.

Story date: Friday 05 November

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