Leeds council warned of window safety fears before boy's fall - inquest

Exodus Eyob died after falling from a seventh floor flat in Leeds in July 2022

A mother warned a council about unsafe windows in her seventh floor flat before her one-year-old son fell to his death, an inquest has heard.

Exodus Eyob climbed on a bed under a window and fell from the high rise in Saville Green, Leeds, in July 2022.

His mother Birikti Berihew said that despite the window having a restrictor it could be easily pushed open.

She had complained many times to Leeds City Council and asked for the windows to be made safer, the hearing was told.

The inquest heard that on 2 July, Ms Berihew's daughter Reem Semere, who was 19 at the time, had woken up and come out of her bedroom before closing the door behind her. She said the restrictor on the window was not engaged and it was slightly open because it had been a hot night.

She described how after a few minutes she could not see Exodus anywhere so began searching the flat before asking her mother where he was.

It was then they went into Reem's bedroom and found the window was "more open than it had been".

Miss Semere said when her mother looked out of the window she saw Exodus on the ground and started screaming.

Exodus fell from the window at Saville Green, Leeds

The inquest heard that since moving into the flat with her three children in 2010, Ms Berihew said she had complained to the council about the windows but felt they were not listening to her concerns.

She said a council workman had visited the flat in November 2020 and at that time she asked for a secondary restrictor to be fitted, but was told it was not possible because that request had not been raised.

She said a neighbour in the next door flat had a secondary restrictor on his windows so she contacted the authority and asked for the same.

Miss Semere told the hearing: "It was the most consistent thing my mum had complained about over the years.

"They kept telling us the restrictor was enough."

Council housing officer Zaheer Akhtar told the inquest he could not recall Ms Berihew asking for additional window restrictors. He said had she done so, he would have acted on it.

The hearing was told Exodus had suffered multiple fractures and a head injury and was taken to Leeds General Infirmary where he was pronounced dead.

The family's solicitors, Ison Harrison, said Ms Berihew was concerned about one of her children falling from the window after becoming aware of the death of six-year-old Liam Shackleton, who fell from the window of a neighbouring tower block at Lincoln Green, in 2011.

Before the inquest, Ison Harrison said Exodus's family was concerned that there are a number of tower blocks in the area with the same windows and that in small bedrooms, where the bed goes under the window, children can gain easy access to windows and the safety feature they can easily disengaged.

Robert Goor, deputy head of property management at Leeds City Council, said his inspection after Exodus's death found there were "no defects with that window system".

Mr Goor told the inquest it was not the council's standard policy to fit cable locks such as the one requested by Ms Berihew, but that they had been offered to residents as part of a "one-off campaign" following Liam Shackleton's death

The inquest continues.