See How 18-Month-Old Fell From First Floor’s Window But Survived

A court heard how an 18-month-old girl fell from the window of a building’s first floor, laying like a broken doll on the pavement. The child’s 31 year-old mother appeared at the window looking shocked minutes after the fall, and then raced down in her dressing gown. The toddler sustained head injuries but survived because she hit a passerby on her way down, breaking the severity of the fall.

A court witness, Karen Kent  described passing the spot four days earlier and seeing a “child estimated between 18 and 24 months” crawling along the window ledge near to an open window.

The man whose shoulder the baby hit, John Gilson, had just walked out of a shop when he “heard a bang and felt something hit his shoulder”.

Prosecutor Geoff Gelbart said, “When he looked down he saw a small baby on the pavement.”

Another witness, Rebecca Zacharow was walking to catch a train when she became aware of “an object coming from the window of a flat above a shop.”

She told the court: “At first she thought it was a doll. It hit the awning of the shop and then it hit the old man. It’s probably those two acts of pure fortune that saved the baby’s life.”

Judge Jeremy Carey heard how passersby gathered round and called an ambulance as Ms Zacharow picked up the baby before the toddler’s mum rushed to the scene.

Bleeding and bruised, the little girl had seemed initially to be unconscious but began crying when the ambulance arrived on the scene in Rainham, Kent.

She needed minor surgery for a head injury but was discharged from hospital days later, and has seemingly made a full recovery since the fall.

The prosecutor told the jury that they would hear evidence from the defendant’s step-mother that she had previously had concerns about the child’s care.

The defendant (the toddler’s mum) was interviewed by police and admitted having fallen asleep while the window was open.

Mr Gelbart said: “She said she was woken by the sound of her child screaming, but it was strange. She wasn’t screaming in her room. The screaming was from elsewhere.”

She denies one count of neglect.

Mr Gelbart outlined her expected defence, saying: “She says she wasn’t wilfully neglectful – it was all a terrible mistake, it was an accident.”

The trial is still ongoing.

Source: Mirror UK