RAILINGS have been installed along a canal where a toddler drowned after wandering out of a Blackburn pub.

Two-year-old Joe Hutcheon died after falling in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal as his family sat in the Moorings pub, Bolton Road, in April.

His heartbroken parents, Hazel and Robert Hutcheon, of Manxman Road, Blackburn, said after the accident that a fence around the pub could have prevented the tragedy.

Mrs Hutcheon said: "If, buts and onlys will never bring Joe back, but if there had been just a simple fence he would be here now.

"I haven't got it in my heart to blame or judge. Just why, I keep asking, was this allowed to happen? I would not want anyone else to feel this pain."

Owners The Pub Estate Company have now erected railings around the back of the building, separating the patio area and rear pub steps from the canal towpath.

The firm's area manager Paul Cowland said: "Obviously we have carried out our own inquiry and the coroner is also carrying out a full investigation.

"Until we have the results from the coroner's inquiry, it would not be appropriate for us to make any comment." Joe disappeared from the pub at about 5.30pm on April 11 as a wedding reception was held upstairs.

It is thought he may have followed older children out of a door at the rear of the pub and wandered downstairs to the canal.

Staff and customers launched a frantic search as soon as his parents spotted he had gone missing and he was found in the canal by a customer.

He was pulled to the bank where pub manager Stuart Lee gave him heart massage and mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Two guests at the wedding reception also tried to save him.

Paramedics and police officers attempted resuscitation before he was taken to nearby Blackburn Royal Infirmary, where he later died.

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