TODDLER Cody Haggard drowned in a pool after his mother became trapped in a basement at the family's Congleton home, an inquest heard.

Lisa Haggard managed to escape by smashing a window, but after a frantic search spotted Cody lying face down in a pool across from her house in Wards Lane.

She gave the two-year-old the kiss of life to try to revive him before calling an ambulance. Cody was certified dead at hospital.

The inquest at Macclesfield heard how Cody was with his mother at the home they shared with family friends on the day in April when the tragedy happened.

Cody and his mother were from Virginia in the USA, and had been living in Congleton for five months.

Miss Haggard, who has now returned to America, said in a statement on the day her son drowned that she decided to switch off the house heating because it was a warm day.

She unlocked the basement door, and left it open as she walked down the steps, knowing Cody would not follow her.

After he threw a packet of nappies down the stairs in fun she heard the basement door slam and latch behind her.

"I was able to speak to Cody, and told him to get his little chair from his room to reach the lock,'' she said.

She heard Cody get the chair, but after hearing a car outside warned him not to go outside.

When she realised he was not coming she decided to try to escape through a basement window.

''All the windows had been painted closed, and I smashed the glass and climbed through,'' she said.

She thought he had run to the main road a quarter of a mile away and she ran to find him but he wasn't there.

As she ran back she saw something blue in a pool across from the house, and realised it was Cody.

"I knew Cody had blue clothes on, and I jumped into the water,'' she said.

She dragged his body to the water's edge and tried to resuscitate her son.

A post-mortem examination revealed Cody had drowned, and Cheshire coroner John Hibbert recorded a verdict of accidental death on what he said was "a tragic accident.''

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