MYSTERY surrounds the death of an 18-month-old toddler who was found in her upturned pushchair 30 minutes after being left to cry herself to sleep, an inquest heard.

Recording an open verdict on Bethany Jane Smithson coroner Andre Rebello said: "I can't say this was an accidental death. There are too many unanswered questions."

Waitress Victoria Jane Benn, 18, was heard screaming when she discovered the lifeless body of her daughter who had been left strapped into the upturned pushchair in the back room at their home in Victoria Street, Rishton, half an hour earlier.

Mr Craig Sammon, 21, of High Street, Rishton, who had been watching television with his sister in the lounge, said : "We were in the middle of discussing whether I would babysit for Bethany when Victoria went to check on the baby.

"When I went into the back room I saw Victoria with her hands on her head. She was saying 'she's dead, she's dead.

"The push chair had gone over backwards, the wheels were in the air and the handles on the floor, with Bethany still in it. Her face was white and her lips were blue and had bubbles between them."

Bethany was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary where she later died. Miss Benn, now of High Street, Rishton, said her daughter often created a fuss at bedtime and her crying the night she died was not unusual.

She added: "We could hear her crying for about 15 minutes. I decided to give her a chance to go to sleep before taking her out with me to get some paracetamols. She had never pushed over her pushchair before and wasn't close to any furniture, apart from a wall unit, but I don't think she could touch it."

Home office pathologist Dr William Lawler said he could give no definite cause of death.

He said: "I found no head or neck injuries. Given the circumstances presented there is a serious possibility pressure to the neck could have stimulated the vagus nerve, causing the heart to stop.

"It is the most likely explanation, however I have to keep an open mind and despite all technology pathologists have to accept there will always be a tiny minority of cases where we have to admit we don't know the cause."

Recording an open verdict Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Coroner Andre Rebello said: "I would love to accept the push chair was pushed over backwards by Bethany's movements and the harness pressed on the side of her neck, stimulating the vagus nerve and causing heart to slow down and stop.

"However this was not a lightweight buggy type folding pushchair. It was a fairly substantial pram and difficult to knock over. "I don't know how the chair turned over backwards. I can't say this was an accidental death. There are too many unanswered questions."

Mr Rebello opted not to hear evidence from Bethany's father, Aiden Smithson, of Quarry Farm Court, Chatburn.

He said: "As you were not there at the time of death I do not think it necessary to hear from you.

"I have received a great deal of background from you but this is not the court it should be heard.

"I have to be careful not to allow family grievances to be aired just for the sake of it."

Mr Rebello is to write to the manufacturers of the pushchair telling them of the death although he said there was no evidence it was unstable.

Little Bethany was featured in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph after her family nicknamed her Baby Spice, when she completed their fifth generation of girls.

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