Shelter was a death trap

Ibrox ace Brown demands inquiry after family member is injured at unsafe structure in playground

- MARK McGIVERN

RANGERS legend John "Bomber" Brown has gone to war with school bosses after his granddaughter was lucky to survive a horrific accident.

He is furious that a cycle shelter fell on terrified Lillie Hart after the semi-derelict metal structure was dumped and lay for years, unsecured, in the school playground.

Lillie, seven, suffered appalling facial injuries and has been told she will have a permanent indentation on her skull.

Doctors and paramedics said it's a miracle she survived after the structure toppled and pinned her down. Lillie was knocked unconscious and fellow pupils feared she had died.

At least four other children are believed to also have been hurt in the incident at Crookfur Primary School, in Newton Mearns, near Glasgow, last Thursday.

East Renfrewshire Council and the Health and Safety Executive are investigating.

John, 61, said: "If you look at what happened to Lillie's face, it's a miracle she survived this.

"It angers me to think of the terror she must have experienced when this huge thing came crashing down on her head. That may have meant she got pinned down instead of being killed outright.

"We've been told it took seven teachers and two prefects to lift the shelter off Lillie, so it really is astonishing that she survived." One boy broke his foot after being hit by the shelter, which was meant to be bolted into the ground. He was also treated at hospital.

The dilapidated shelter has worn and brittle Perspex windows, and a lack of secure moorings is believed to have resulted in it toppling over when some pupils swung on its top bar.

Education chiefs have launched a probe and will look at why the shelter was allowed to be left, free standing, for years after it was moved from the front of the school following a refurbishment.