Freddie Farrow: Mirror was 'very near or on its balance point' before killing five-year-old boy, inquest hears

An Essex Police detective concluded that the mirror "must have been very near or on its balance point" before it toppled onto Freddie Farrow at the Fenwick store in Colchester on July 27, 2021.

Freddie, who was in the store’s lingerie department with his mother and her friend, appeared to have touched the mirror with "very little force" before it fell, Temporary Detective Chief Inspector Michael Pannell told the inquest at Chelmsford Coroner’s Court.

The mirror, which was 8ft 6in (2.6m) high and nearly 2ft (0.6m) wide, weighed between 132lb and 176lb (60kg-80kg), according to a police report prepared by Detective Inspector Fred Tomkins.

DCI Pannell, summarizing DI Tomkins’ report, said the police were called to the scene by the ambulance service at 11:32am. “Freddie appears to touch the mirror, looking at his own reflection,” he told the inquest. “The mirror appears to shimmer before moving forwards.”

He confirmed the incident was captured on CCTV but described the footage as "distressing", with Senior Coroner Lincoln Brookes deciding that it would not be played in court. “A large mirror attached to a column fell over on top of him, causing very serious head injuries,” the coroner told the jury.

The inquest heard that Freddie was initially taken to Colchester Hospital before being transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where he died on August 2, 2021.

DCI Pannell said the mirror struck Freddie on the "top and back of his head," causing a catastrophic brain injury. Investigators found that the mirror had been leaning against the wall rather than being securely fixed.

“There was a metal bracket on the wall and a metal bracket on the mirror, and a wooden part of the bracket was in pieces,” Pannell explained, reading from DI Tomkins’ report.

“It was my view that this part of the bracket between the two metal brackets had effectively come apart, leaving it freestanding and leaning against the wall.”

Alison Chapman, a health and safety officer for Colchester City Council at the time, told the inquest that the mirrors were installed as part of a major store refurbishment in 2015-16 and came with a five-year manufacturer’s guarantee. However, she said there was "no planned preventative maintenance" and the mirrors would have been subject to "wear and tear" from cleaning and customer interactions.

Following Freddie’s death, nine out of 14 mirrors in the store were found to have deformation in their upper fixing brackets, raising concerns about their stability.

Freddie’s mother, Natasha Ingham, described her son as "cheeky and funny and clever." Reading a pen portrait in court, she said: “He was always smiling, which was like a ray of sunshine.”

His father, Andrew Farrow, who was not at the hearing, said in a statement: “It feels like part of our world is missing.”

The inquest, which is expected to last four to five days, continues.