Echoes of previous scalding death

Ms Minster died after a tank of boiling water poured onto her bed

The inquest on baby Rhianna Hardie who was scalded to death comes six years after mother-of-two Sharon Minster was fatally burned in similar circumstances.

Ms Minster suffered 45% burns when a tank of boiling water poured through her ceiling and onto her bed as she slept in May 2002.

She died in hospital nine days after the accident at her housing authority-owned home in Penzance, Cornwall.

Rhianna, who was aged 10 months, was scalded to death in November 2006 in Taunton, Somerset.

Health and safety inspector David Cory told the hearing into Rhianna's death he notified the government of a fault in the immersion heater at Ms Minster's home, but his findings were not passed onto other local authorities.

In 2003, an inquest jury ruled Ms Minster's death was accidental.

After that verdict, the Penwith Housing Association, which owned the property, said it had undertaken checks on 703 other houses.

Of those, 17 had problems with the water heating system, and one had a similar defect to the cold water tank in Ms Minster's home.

The association said new thermostats had been fitted in its properties to replace the model which had malfunctioned.

Speaking through their solicitor in 2003, the parents of Ms Minster said the accident had "highlighted faulty immersion heaters and correctly supporting water tanks in roof voids".