Father calls for looped blind ban

Muireann's funeral will be held in Kinross on Wednesday.

A father has called for looped window blind cords to be outlawed after his two-year-old daughter died in a tragic accident in her bedroom.

Muireann McLaughlin was found dead by her father Angus after she had become tangled in the cord in Menstrie, Clackmannanshire, last Tuesday.

Writing on his Bebo page, Mr McLaughlin said that the production of blinds with looped cords was banned in America.

Muireann's funeral will be held in Kinross on Wednesday.

We had them installed thinking them relatively safe. Our lesson has been learned in a very hard way Angus McLaughlin Father of Muireann

Mr McLaughlin wrote: "Cut the damn cords my friends, save yourselves from a tragedy.

"Safety is paramount, the design of these things is fundamentally flawed, no safeguards are in situ.

"Do yourselves and me a favour and campaign about the safety of home products and ask yourselves why a product, banned in the USA 10 years ago, is still being manufactured in this country with good profit margin."

Mr McLaughlin said that he and wife Kate thought their home was like "Fort Knox" with all the locks and barriers they had in place to keep Muireann and her older brother and sister safe.

Threat to children

He added: "But still we are afflicted with the worst thing of all, our little princess being ripped from us by of all things a fairly innocuous window blind cord.

"God knows how the wee one actually reached the damn thing, but we have to pick up the pieces with our surviving dynamic duo.

"Muireann was only 10.5 Kg. Our other two would have taken the blind off the bloody wall.

"We had them installed thinking them relatively safe. Our lesson has been learned in a very hard way. God rest her little soul."

Speaking shortly after Muireann's death, Roger Vincent of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents warned that loops and cords could pose a threat to children.

He said: "Our advice is that parents cut the loops on the cords and try to keep them out of the reach of children.

"In an ideal world manufacturers wouldn't produce blinds and curtains with loop cords."