Imagine popping to the shops with your three-year-old daughter to buy ingredients for your birthday cake. Dawdling home in the sunshine as she chats to herself about her new glitter pack. Turning around to see her. And watching her die. This is what happened to Chester mum Lindsay Burgess four years ago and, as she tells JO HENWOOD, she is desperate to ensure it never happens to anyone else ever again

IT WAS Saturday, July 26 2008. Lindsay, husband Peter, daughter Meg and son Wilson, 18 months, were living in their dream home in Meliden in Denbighshire.

Lindsay’s friend was visiting and the two had planned a shopping trip to Liverpool. The following Tuesday would be Lindsay’s 29th birthday and Meg wanted to bake her some cakes.

“She was holding my hand and asking if we could go to the shops,” said Lindsay, who had her own business as a wedding photographer and now lives in Upton, Chester.

“I said to my friend: ‘We won’t go out this morning, I’ll just get these cakes done first’ and set off with Meg and Wilson in the pram to buy some sugar.

“She was behaving extra sweetly saying: ‘I love you mummy’ and ‘look at how beautiful the flowers are’.

“In the shops she opened up her pocket money purse to buy herself a glitter pack. People were mesmerised by her. She was such an attractive person to be with.

“We started back, chatting about the glitter and the cakes and Meg was dawdling a few steps behind me.

“I looked back at her trotting along, almost talking to herself. She didn’t know what silence was!”

Then Lindsay witnessed what she described as ‘the most horrific thing’ – a 5ft 2in high garden wall fell on top of Meg and crushed her. The force blew Lindsay’s hair and the wall landed inches from her feet.

She said: “She looked up at me one last time and beamed her beautiful smile before her hand went up to protect her head as she sensed a shadow of a looming wall. I watched those little legs trip over themselves as she fell. It all happened so quickly, yet I remember every frame of the filmstrip, and me just a hand reach away, I would never have got to her in time.”

Lindsay screamed, ran over to Meg and started pulling the bricks off her crushed body.

She says she can speak of it now in a ‘detached way’ but her voice lowers and her eyes fill with tears as she recounts: “They were nine-inch breeze blocks and they had broken all over her body.

“I tried to pull her out and I was thinking: ‘She’s not going to walk again, she’s not going to be able to have children. I tried to resuscitate her but then I saw her eyes were fixed, her lips were blue. I knew she’d gone, ” she said.

Pete continues: “I got this phone call and all I remember was the word ‘wall’. I’d seen the wall - it had been knocked up so quickly. It was out of place.”

When Pete arrived at the scene he said: “It was like a balloon being popped. As a dad, you are instinctively protective and want to do something. I was barking instructions at people and taking down details.”

Pete was the one who travelled in the ambulance with Meg to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.

“Because I hadn’t seen it happen, I had no idea of the extent of her injuries. I didn’t have massive hope but the ambulance was there so quickly…” he said, his voice tailing off.

Next Saturday, October 27, would have been Meg’s eighth birthday. A friend of hers in North Wales still wears one half of a necklace, the other half of which was buried with Meg, four weeks after the tragic event.

The four years on from that fateful day has not been easy for Lindsay and Pete. They have both suffered post traumatic stress and depression and their marriage has suffered.

Peter, a former teacher, now runs his own educational business because, he says: “I was needed.”

Lindsay admits that she has an unhealthy fixation on the health and safety of her sons Wilson, now six and Jackson, three.

The family have moved house more than once and settled in Upton two years ago to be nearer Lindsay’s sister.

The trial of builder George Collier at Mold Crown Court earlier this month was the catalyst for the two to launch Meg’s Campaign, to license the building trade.

Collier had denied manslaughter by gross negligence and said the wall was a garden wall, not a retaining wall, built by two bricklayers.

The prosecution claimed that Collier, who had 30 years’ experience, should have realised it was a retaining wall and he was jailed for two years.

Lindsay said: “Anyone can be a domestic builder and there is little way of proving anyone’s competency. There needs to be a rigorous system in place.

“Builders who are incompetent or have poor standards ruin the reputation of good and decent builders, who are already struggling to stay afloat in a difficult economy.

“We also want to recognise and celebrate builders who practice well within their ability and with good conduct. ”

Lindsay has secured the support of Chester MP Stephen Mosley and Denbighshire MP Chris Ruane.

Stephen Mosley said: “Meg’s story is extremely distressing and I have been really impressed with Mr and Mrs Burgess’s resolve in getting justice for Meg and campaigning to stop this from happening ever again. It really highlights the importance of robust building regulations and the severe consequences that can result from using cowboy builders.

“Meg’s family have my full support in their campaign and I have been in contact with Government Ministers to highlight their concerns. Now that the court case is over I hope to be able to arrange a face to face meeting between Meg’s parents and ministers to discuss potential ways forward.”

Lindsay and Pete have launched Meg’s Campaign on Facebook  (2012@gmail.com.

The facts behind the campaign:

According to Lindsay, there are about 180,000 construction companies across the country.  
The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has 10,000 members, meaning  about 94% of the nation’s building companies are unregistered.
The Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card is the construction industry’s largest scheme and 1.8 million practitioners hold CSCS cards. 
Not having a CSCS card may affect a practitioner’s ability to work on a construction site, however, most domestic sites do not require CSCS cards.