Boy, 8, died ‘instantaneously and painlessly’ after being hit by falling gravestone in cemetery
Ciaran Williamson tragically lost his life after his mum allowed him out to play when the stone slab smashed his skull
THE death of an eight-year-old boy killed by a gravestone was “instantaneous and painless” a fatal accident inquiry heard yesterday.
Ciaran Williamson tragically lost his life after his mum allowed him out to play when he smashed his skull on the stone slab.
A joint minute of agreement of pathology evidence from Dr Gemma Kemp was read to the court by Dorothy Bain QC.
Ciaran’s parents wept as the details of his multiple injuries were read to the court.
The schoolboy suffered two skull fractures and his brain stem separated into two parts when he was hit by the headstone in Craigton Cemetery, Glasgow.
The court heard he had cuts on his face as well as internal injuries to his heart and liver caused by the falling stone.
Miss Bain read that Dr Kemp recorded that Ciaran was facing the seven foot gravestone and was positioned at a distance away from it, that was longer than the length of the memorial plate.
The QC said: “The pediment fell striking Ciaran on the top of his head causing him to fall backwards, as a result he sustained several head injuries.”
It was heard that the pediment “fell further and progressed down Ciaran’s face causing him to sustain several abrasions”.
The document also said “the pediment then landed on Ciaran’s chest, shoulder and upper abdomen causing him to sustain the blunt force trauma injuries he suffered to his aorta and liver”.
Miss Bain told the court: “At the point Ciaran was struck by the pediment his death would have been instantaneous and painless for him.”
Ciaran’s dad walked out as the distressing details were read to the court.
The inquiry before sheriff Linda Ruxton continues.
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Stephanie Griffin, 25, told a fatal accident inquiry Ciaran Williamson had only been allowed out to play for 10 minutes.
But in that time a headstone in Craigton Cemetery, Glasgow, fell on him causing a cardiac arrest that tragically took his life.
Griffin, who clutched a teddy in the courtroom, described Ciaran as having “the biggest heart”.
Giving evidence at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday she told the inquiry Ciaran was due to go on holiday days later with his gran and was going to her house that evening to try on holiday clothes.
But, he was allowed to go out and play with his friends until they were leaving and that was the last she spoke to him, on May 26 last year.
Fighting tears she said Ciaran asked to go out and play and she agreed telling him to stay at the front of the house.
She said: “Just as Ciaran was leaving he gave us all a kiss and shouted ‘love you’. Ciaran always done that.
“Then he went out and he shouted to me.
“I went to the veranda and he said ‘can I go down to the swing park that’s where the other boys are going?’
“I said ‘that’s fine you have got 10 minutes then I will come get you. That was him, I watched him walk along the street.”
She said her partner Thomas McGee, 26 had been at the shops and when he came home he was no sooner in the door when Ciaran’s friend arrived.
Miss Griffin said: “I heard him saying something about ‘you need to come quick Ciaran is bleeding, he’s hurt himself’ so Thomas just flew out of the door.”
She told the inquiry: “I said to my mum ‘I bet he’s broken his leg and he’s not going to be able to get on his holiday’.
“Just as I said that I got this horrible feeling take over my whole body."
The mum-of-four said she ran to see what was wrong and came to a hole in the wall at the nearby cemetery.
Despite her partner asking her to stay away she barged in to see her son and found him on the ground.
Through tears she said: “I turned round and seen him lying on the floor and I knew as soon as I saw him that something really bad had happened.”
“Blood was coming out his ears and nose, he was just lying in this puddle all around him.”
“I tried to check for a pulse, checking his arm and his leg.
“I kept slapping his face like ‘come on Ciaran, come on Ciaran just get up.”
She said Mr McGee told her “when I got here that was on him”, referring to a gravestone.
The inquiry heard she “fell to the ground” and screamed and shouted then on instruction from the emergency services went to look out for the ambulance.
Miss Griffin said when paramedics arrived they took Ciaran away to Yorkhill Children's hospital.
Medics battled to save Ciaran but when Miss Griffin arrived at the hospital she was told there was nothing they could do.
Miss Griffin said she warned Ciaran not to play in the graveyard because it was dangerous and disrespectful.
She said she wasn’t aware of a hole in the wall of the cemetery until after the incident but has since learned nearby residents reported it as far back as eight years ago.
Mr McGee described when he got to Ciaran the gravestone was on top of his chest and he looked “lifeless”.
He said: “My first thought was to get the top bit off him because I didn’t want his mum to see him like that.”
Mr Williamson broke down and told the court: “Because someone couldn’t do their job properly he has been taken from me.”
He told the court that if the hole was covered then Ciaran wouldn’t have been in the graveyard and wouldn’t be dead.
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