A BOY who fell from the roof of a block of flats climbed scaffolding which had not been sealed off, an inquest heard today.

Adventure-seeking Adam Tiffin and his pals had been able to slip through an opening in scaffolding and clamber up a ladder to the roof of a block of flats that were being repaired in Washington.

Undetected, the youngsters built a play den furnished with cushions and plastic chairs.

But in April last year their innocent fun turned to tragedy, when Adam, seven, fell 26ft from the roof and was killed instantly.

For more than a year his devastated family have been waiting for answers from the flats' owners, the Sunderland Housing Group, and their contractor Lovells who were carrying out the repairs, as to how the children were able to climb the scaffolding so easily.

Paula Tiffin broke down in tears as she relived the nightmare moment her son plunged to his death, at the inquest at South Shields Magistrates' Court on Monday.

She told the court: "Work had been going on around the estate for weeks. I think they'd been up the scaffolding a couple of times and had made a den up there."

Also giving evidence, Adam's dad Stephen Freeman said: "To them the scaffolding must have seemed like a climbing frame."

Coroner Terence Carney heard from Dryburgh resident Katrina Walmsley how she often heard the "sound of little feet" on the roof above her.

In a statement to police she said: "Almost every day I heard the sound of little feet on the roof. They climbed up the poles to the first platform then up a ladder. I told workmen and approached Lovells but nothing was done.

"I would shout at them to get down as I knew it was so dangerous."

On the day of the tragedy she told police how she had heard steps on the roof before hearing a woman screaming.

She said: "I heard Paula screaming 'Don't let this happen'. I looked out over my balcony and she was cradling Adam in her arms.They were both covered in blood."

Paul Cross, consultant pathologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead, said Adam had died of multiple injuries and his head injuries were so severe he would have died instantly, on impact.

Health and safety experts were called to the scene to assess the scaffolding, which had been erected to repair a gas flue several weeks earlier.

Stephen Terrance, head of Health and Safety at the Sunderland Housing Group, said they had asked Lovells if alternatives to scaffolding could be used, but that Lovells chose to use their resident scaffolder as it was "more convenient".

The inquest continues.