Boy, 4, killed by 6½ft falling mirror in Hugo Boss store
A BOY of four was killed when a 6ft 6in mirror fell on top of him at a Hugo Boss store, an inquest heard yesterday.
Austen Harrison was playing while he waited for his father Simon to try on suits when the 260lb mirror toppled over in a fitting room.
The court heard the winged mirror should have been secured to a wall, but was in fact freestanding.
Mr Harrison described how he heard a ‘quick loud sudden bang’ before turning around to see the mirror on the floor.
In a statement to the inquest, he said: ‘I heard someone gasp…I knew Austen was underneath it as it was not lying flat to the floor.’
The father lifted the mirror off his son and carried him to a carpeted area of the store where an off-duty doctor assisted until paramedics arrived. Austen was taken to hospital but died four days later from head injuries.
Mr Harrison, a mechanical aero- space engineer, said his son had moved the two winged sections of the mirror inwards so he could see himself better while he was playing, and the father had then moved them back.
A statement from Austen’s mother Irina said she had taken her son to Bicester Village shopping centre in Oxfordshire where she was meeting her husband after work.
She said: ‘Austen was looking at himself in front of the mirror when I heard a crash. We ran to the mirror and Austen was underneath it. His head was broken.’
Christina Davies, the off- duty doctor, said in a statement that Mr Harrison was holding tissues to his son’s head. She found Austen’s pulse and tried to keep him stable until paramedics arrived.
Oxfordshire Coroner Darren Salter said the child had suffered a severe head injury. He added: ‘The mirror was designed to be fixed to the wall and not freestanding.’
The inquest heard the mirror was 6ft 6in tall and half an inch wide with a large centre panel and two hinged wings on either side.
The Health and Safety Executive found no evidence of wall fixings on the back of the main mirror or
‘Everyone was in shock’
the wings and an investigation found if the wings were opened outwards, even marginally, it would cause the mirror to rock forward.
Doctors operated on Austen, of Crawley, West Sussex, however he could not be saved. He died on June 8, 2013.
The Hugo Boss sales assistant serving Mr Harrison told the inquest he saw Austen playing with the mirror seconds before it crashed down on top of the boy. Adam Sayers said: ‘I had a feeling of not knowing what to do with myself. Everyone was in shock.
‘Five minutes before it fell, the dad was looking in the mirror from a distance and the child was in front of him moving the mirror inwards. His dad said, Don’t do that, and the boy laughed.’
Supervisor Margarita Krylovaite told the inquest she always thought the mirror was attached to the wall. She said: ‘It never crossed my mind it wasn’t attached. I was not involved in dealing with fittings on the shop floor.’
The inquest, before a jury in Oxford, will resume today.