Father blasts bed company who blamed baby's death on two-year-old sister

Family's lawyer says: 'To issue such a statement to the press rather than to the family in person is disgraceful'

A father has blasted the manufacturers of a cot in which his baby daughter died over its "so-called apology" for trying to implicate his other daughter in the death.

Seven-week-old Grace Roseman died when she managed to get her head over a half-lowered side of a Bednest crib at her home in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.

She was unable to lift her head off again and died of positional asphyxia on April 9 2015. At an inquest last month, West Sussex coroner Penelope Schofield criticised Bednest for its "lack of compassion".

It followed unfounded allegations by lawyers for Bednest that Grace's sister Pearl, who was aged two-and-a-half at the time, could have somehow been responsible for her sister's death.

Bednest managing director Mark Green later reportedly apologised for the suggestion, and offered an unreserved apology to the Roseman family.

But their father Gideon Roseman said he was "astounded and insulted" to read about the "so-called apology", saying the first he and his wife Esther had learned about it was via press reports.

He said in a statement: "Considering the indescribable anguish Bednest caused our family leading up to and during the inquest into Grace's death with this appalling allegation, we are astounded and insulted to read about a so-called apology in this way.

"We have never received any personal communication - letter, email or phone call - from the company nor Mark Green apologising for the hell they've put us all through."

The family's lawyer, Jill Greenfield, of Fieldfisher, said: "To issue such a statement to the press rather than to the family in person is disgraceful.

"Yet again, the company is blaming its own experts for the allegations rather than taking personal responsibility for the course of action it chose to take following Grace's tragic death.

"Perhaps more importantly, Bednest's so-called 'unreserved apology' still does not acknowledge that it was the design of its cot that killed Grace Roseman, something that was made very clear in the inquest.

"By refusing to accept responsibility, Bednest continues to heap terrible pain onto the Rosemans."

Bednest was unavailable for immediate comment.

At the inquest, Ms Schofield said the manufacturer as well as the Furniture Industry Research Association (Fira), which approved the product, had failed to foresee the risk.

And she said she was concerned that Bednest did not "fully appreciate" the ongoing risks of the existing unmodified cots that are still being used.

Ms Schofield originally issued a Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths concerning the Bednest cot following the death and she said she would be issuing an updated version with her findings from the inquest.

Bednest, which used to sell the cot jointly with the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), has since modified the design to stop the sides from being kept in the half-lowered position.

The inquest heard that while Bednest had since made efforts to contact existing owners to issue a modification kit to prevent the sides from being left in the half-lowered position, it had been unable to reach 3,300 people.