Mum screamed ‘help my baby is trapped’ after son, 12, was crushed to death by garage wall that collapsed ‘in seconds’
A DISTRAUGHT mum screamed “help my baby is trapped” before he was crushed to death by a garage wall, an inquest heard.
Scott-Swaley Stevens, 12, was at home in Clacton, Essex, when the horror unfolded.
An inquest was told the youngster became trapped under the rubble along with his dad Scott Stevens.
Scott-Swaley’s sister realised what had happened and ran inside, shouting: “Help mum, daddy and Swaley are trapped under the wall.”
Mum Charmaine Lee then rushed to a fire station next door and begged “help, my baby is trapped”.
Firefighters rushed to the home to find people “frantically trying to move the rubble”.
Tragically Scott-Swaley couldn’t be saved and was declared dead at the scene.
A post mortem gave a cause of death as compression asphyxia.
His dad was pulled from the rubble with a suspected broken arm.
The inquest was told the pair were knocking down the garage wall on October 21 last year as the family were attempting to flip the home.
They had tucked into fish and chips during a break in their DIY work before heading back to finish the job.
Scott told the hearing: “The wall fell onto us both after we had rocked it to push it over.
“I didn’t use any tools to complete this.
“It fell onto us within seconds which I couldn’t stop.”
The dad said he believed they were trapped for around two hours as “no one could hear us” but the coroner said the time was probably “much less”.
Essex senior coroner, Lincoln Brookes, concluded that Scott-Swaley’s death was an “extraordinarily tragic accident”.
He added: “The weight of the wall put such pressure on his chest that his heart couldn’t work properly.
“His blood couldn’t reach his brain, he went unconscious and died.
“He was a 12-year-old boy with his whole life ahead of him.”
Scott-Swaley’s family previously told of their pain at losing their “well-loved boy” following the tragedy.
In an emotional statement they said: “After a tragic accident, our son Scott-Swaley has sadly passed away.
“As a family, we cannot explain the hurt we feel and we are broken.
“Our Swaley was a well-loved boy who had friends not only in Clacton, but also in Dartford and Wickford and will be missed by so many.
“As a family, we would like to ask for privacy at this difficult time whilst we come to terms with our loss.
“We appreciate and would like to say thank you for all of the kind tributes to our boy.”