Boy fatally stabbed making snack

Brandon Clawson's death was described as a "freak accident"

A four-year-old boy died in a "tragic, freak accident" after stabbing himself in the heart with a knife as he made a sandwich, an inquest heard.

Brandon Clawson fell from worktop on to the kitchen knife while making the snack at his home in Beswick, Greater Manchester, in July 2005.

Manchester Coroner's Court heard the injury was "not survivable" despite the efforts of police and doctors.

Coroner Leonard Gorodkin recorded a verdict of accidental death.

The inquest heard Brandon had always previously asked his mother for food but decided to make a sandwich himself on 2 July last year.

The knife was lying in the centre of the kitchen floor, lying next to a tub of margarine Det Insp Michael Fraser

He climbed on to the work top and somehow fell, with the knife puncturing his chest through his rib cage and into his heart and a lung.

His mother Angela Wilson heard him shout "mum, mum" and ran into the kitchen to find him as he collapsed to the floor with blood on his chest.

"His eyes were rolling to the back of his head, I ran into the street with him and he felt limp and he was turning blue," she told the inquest.

Police and ambulance crews were called as Mrs Wilson sat on her doorstep cradling her son.

Brandon was rushed to Manchester Royal Infirmary where surgeons attempted emergency heart surgery, but could not save him.

Home Office pathologist, Dr John Rutherford, said the injury was "entirely consistent with a stab wound sustained accidentally".

Bread out

Greater Manchester Police launched an investigation because of the nature of the death.

Det Insp Michael Fraser, who carried out the inquiry, said: "Brandon's death was a tragic, freak accident, based on the account of witnesses and examination from the scene."

He said the evidence pointed to the fact Brandon was making a sandwich at the time of the incident.

"A loaf of bread was half out of the bread bin, on an adjacent work surface two slices of bread and an open pack of cooked meat and salad cream were found," he said.

"The knife was lying in the centre of the kitchen floor, lying next to a tub of margarine."