A TODDLER died in the arms of her mother after being crushed by a television set, an inquest heard.

Lucy Lyle, aged 23 months, had been watching Barney on television with her older sister at the time of the accident, which caused her a severe head injury.

Her mother, Katherine Lyle, told the Scarborough hearing she had put her daughters to bed at about 7pm on Friday, October 25, and it had followed as any other bed time would, with stories and playtime before she put the TV on whilst the two sisters settled down.

She said: “I heard a bang, a very loud bang. As soon as I heard it I ran upstairs and I noticed that the TV had been pulled over.

“That was when I noticed I couldn’t see Lucy and I started screaming.”

Mrs Lyle described lifting the TV off Lucy who was lying on her back with her head to one side. She then put her daughter in the recovery position before phoning for an ambulance.

She said: “I phoned 999 and started CPR. The ambulance took 27 minutes and 33 seconds to arrive.

“She died whilst I was performing CPR.”

Mrs Lyle said that the old-style TV was so heavy she “could barely lift it”

and that she thought Lucy might have pulled on the drawers, causing the TV and the accompanying unit to fall.

Her husband, Peter, had been out with a friend at the time, and the inquest heard he arrived at his home in Beverley Road, Norton, to the sight of ambulance crews in the bedroom, but the child had already been pronounced dead.

A post-mortem examination showed that Lucy had suffered a fractured skull. The report said that the toddler would have been rendered unconscious almost instantly from the blow of the TV.

Michael Oakley, HM Senior Coroner for the North Yorkshire Eastern Area, said that Lucy’s death was “clearly the result of a very tragic accident” and recorded a decision of accidental death.