Mother's fight to save twins crushed by chest

A pregnant mother struggled desperately to rescue her dying twins after they were crushed by a chest of drawers, it emerged today.

Two-year-olds William and Betsy Woodbridge got jammed under the large wooden chest and, despite the intervention of paramedics, neither regained consciousness.

Today a friend of the family revealed the twins' parents, Paul, 37, and Louise, 33, had been downstairs when a sickening thud reverberated around their £650,000 five-bedroom home. "They just looked at each other in horror and ran upstairs," said the friend.

"They had put the twins down for an afternoon nap and were doing bits and pieces downstairs when they heard the crash.

"The twins must have got up and been playing around the chest of drawers in another room. It fell on and by the time their parents could get to the room it was too late.

"The chest had partly fallen across the door and their mother, who is about six months pregnant, couldn't get into the room initially - they had to force it open. They were devastated when they saw what had happened."

It is believed the twins were crushed to death by the weight of the furniture at the family's home in the village of Winkfield, near Windsor.

A Home Office pathologist who carried out post-mortems

at Wexham Park Hospital, said in his initial report that the injuries were consistent with the effects of the twins' bodies having been crushed.

An inquest has been opened and adjourned. Thames Valley Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

"It was a tragic accident," said an officer at the family's home. The couple and their two other children, Ben, 10, and Lily, four, were being comthemforted today by relatives who include the twins' grandfather, Norman Grundon, one of Britain's richest men.

They were too upset to talk but another family friend said: "They were smashing twins and the absolute apple of their mum and dad's eye.

"Losing one child is bad enough but losing twins at the same time is shocking. Louise is heavily pregnant so you can imagine how worried we are about her. No parent could accept something like this.

"When you lay them down to sleep you assume no harm could happen. Nobody could expect a mum or dad to watch over them while they slept.

"It is the sort of tragedy that will send a shiver up every parent's spine."

Another close friend, Ruth Roll, said: "We are never going to know exactly what happened. We can try to make up our own minds that they were climbing on the chest but we will never know.

"Louise is a wonderful mother and Paul works hard as a contracts development manager, to give the family what they want."

Mr Woodbridge works for his father-in-law's firm, Grundon Waste Management, which is the largest privately-owned waste management company in Britain. Mr Grundon, ranked 865 in the Sunday Times Rich List 2004, lives in the village of Hedgerley, Bucks, with his wife Frances.

A neighbour said: "They are such a lovely family, a really sweet couple. I don't imagine you ever recover from something like this."