Toddler Jack Harper died after getting his neck stuck in home-made safety bars on his bunk bed, an inquest heard.

The two-year-old, of Hillview Road, Carterton, was found hanging from a gap in rails designed to stop him falling from the top bunk.

At the inquest into his death, his father, Kevin, said he made the wooden rails himself after the bed's original safety bars broke when the family moved house.

Tragically, thehe left too much of a gap between the solid base separating the top and bottom bunks and the first safety rail was too great, the inquest heard. Jack was trapped by the neck after somehow squeezing between a gap just over 12cm high. Mr Harper, still struggling to come to terms with the tragedy in July, said: "Jack was a typical, cheeky two-year-old. It has been a devastating experience."

Mr Harper, who has three other children, told the inquest he put Jack to bed at about 6.30pm and settled down on the sofa to watch a World Cup match. He checked his son was asleep at 7.30pm - but at 10.20pm, his eldest daughter, Roxanne, five, came rushing downstairs.

Mr Harper told the inquest: "She said Jack was hanging from the bed. I went upstairs and he was hanging by his neck. I lifted him back through the bars but he was not breathing. I took him downstairs and asked Jackie to phone an ambulance."

Despite desperate attempts to revive him, Jack was certified dead at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Pathologist Dr Stephen Gould said the toddler died from asphyxia. Measurements revealed that Jack's pelvis was 11cm wide and his head 14cm. The gap to the first safety bar was 12.5cm. Dr Gould said: "It is my view that the pelvis could have slipped through this gap fairly easily and he would not have been able to get his head through."

The inquest heard that bunk bed manufacturers ensure there is a gap of no more than 7.5cm to the first safety bar.

The Oxfordshire coroner, Nicholas Gardiner, recorded a verdict of accidental death.

He said: "It is clear that Jack somehow managed to pass his body between the safety rail and the base. His head had a larger diameter than any other part of his body and he would have been hanged.

"Hopefully some small comfort can be gained from whatever happened, it happened very quickly.

He added: "Incidents like this do sometimes occur and they have a very long lasting and tragic effect on those concerned."

The inquest was also attended by Jack's mother, Nicola, who lives in Witney.

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