No matter what precautions we take, accidents are still going to happen. We can make people more aware of possible dangers, but that isn’t always the case. This comes after a story in the Daily Mail about an eight year old girl who plunged about 150ft from a tower block as she tried to talk to a friend.
Leanne Minick, was leaning out of her bedroom window when she tumbled forward out of her flat on the 15th floor and landed on the pavement below.
Her mother Claire Sicberras and her partner, Ian Whitmore, were quickly on the scene and have been left heartbroken by her death. A neighbour and friend of the family told the Daily Mail that Leanne had been trying to talk to a friend on the ground when she fell from the flat in East London.
She told the paper: “I heard shouting outside, looked out of my window and saw Leanne’s mum and dad downstairs. Leanne fell from her bedroom window. She was leaning out talking to somebody, got too confident and fell.”
Leanne was taken by helicopter to the Royal London Hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
The 34-year-old said: “I heard her mum screaming and looked out of the window and then saw her body lying on the ground. It was awful, the worse thing I have ever seen. I can’t get to sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see her again and think it could have been one of my girls. She was the same age as my eldest daughter.”
Another witness, who was also a family friend, told the Daily Mail: “My son went out to play and minutes later he was banging on the door. He said Leanne had fallen and wasn’t moving. I went down and saw her as well. It was really awful. The Injuries were horrific. My son is having counselling after seeing it and so am I.”
Leanne who was a pupil at Old Ford Primary School near Victoria Park was described as clever and bubbly. Another family friend told the paper: “The parents seem like they’re trying to be strong but it’s not really working to be honest, they’re heart broken. She was lively, confident and cheeky, really bubbly and confident. She was a clever girl as well.”
Friends and family have left tributes of flowers and cuddly toys at the foot of her tower block on the Old Ford estate in Tower Hamlets.
The police have made no arrests and have said nothing to suggest that the death was any more than a tragic accident. A Scotland Yard spokesmen said: “The death is being treated as unexplained.”
