A POLICE woman has recalled how officers attempted to shield a mother from the heartbreak of seeing medics try in vain to save her son’s life at an agricultural show.

Three-year-old Ben Craggs, from Sedgefield, County Durham, died after a concrete bollard fell on him at the Royal Highland Show, near Edinburgh, in 2008.

Giving evidence at the trial of the show organisers, The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, today (Wednesday, November 19), PC Nicola Brown told Edinburgh Sheriff Court she was on duty at the show.

Having received a report of a boy being injured by a bollard, she was driving to the scene when she saw a man running towards her car.

PC Brown said: "I thought he was not well. He was so white.”

She said she put the man into the car and continued to the site of the accident.

The 35-year-old recalled: “Two paramedics were on the ground.

"I could see they were treating a young boy. His eyes were slightly bulging and blood was coming from his head.”

She then realised the man she had in the car was the boy's father, Jonathan Craggs, although she had no conversation with him.

The boy's mother, Dawn Surtees, was brought to the scene by an inspector.

PC Brown told the jury: "From memory, we tried to stop her going round and seeing the child.”

The officer then went to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in the ambulance and Mr and Mrs Craggs followed in a police car.

She said: "I was present when they were told by a doctor that Ben had died.”

Farmer Stephen Crawford, who had parked his lorry in the North Car Park, where the accident occurred, told the court: "I noticed the concrete bollards next to me were unstable.

“They were joined by a rope. The rope was not tight. I do know the rope was not tied tightly.”

The Society faces eight charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

One accuses the Society of failing to ensure that moveable concrete bollards at the Ingliston showground were stabilised and as a consequence of which on June 19, 2008, Ben Craggs fell and seized hold of a rope connecting two of the bollards, causing one to overturn and strike him on the head, causing severe injuries as a result of which he died.

Ben’s parents, who at the time farmed and ran a B&B at Sedgefield, County Durham, had attended the show for years to exhibit their cattle.

The trial before Sheriff Paul Arthurson continues.