Boy, 8, dies after accidentally hanging himself on rope swing in back garden

Harry Rowse was having a go on the makeshift rope swing before going to school. But he slipped and it became tangled around his neck. 

He was found by his stepfather John at the family's house in Carcroft, Doncaster, last Thursday morning. 

Harry was enjoying five minutes of fun as he climbed the tree and began swinging before he was due to set off for school.

Moments later he was gasping for life after he slipped and the rope became tangled around his neck.

Scene of tragedy: Harry Rowse, eight, slipped and hung himself while swinging from a tree in the garden of his Carcroft home

Harry's mother, graphic designer Diane Jobling, 34, had left for work a few minutes earlier.

His stepfather John, a serving policeman, realised something was wrong and found Harry hanged by the rope.

He freed the youngster and desperately fought to help him as paramedics raced to the scene in the garden of the family's semi-detached house in Carcroft, Doncaster.

Harry, a pupil at nearby Carcroft Primary School, was rushed to a specialist unit at Sheffield Children's Hospital and was placed on a life support machine following the incident last Thursday.

Doctors fought to save the boy but the machine was turned off when he was declared brain dead six days later.

Harry's heartbroken granddad, 77-year-old Lawrence Jobling, said : 'The whole family is devastated.

'He was a happy lad and full of life and this was a tragic accident.

'It was a nice morning and he was having a bit of fun before he set off for school. There's a tree at the bottom of the garden where him and his pals had a rope swing.

'He was just swinging on rope like any little lad would do for a bit of fun and he must have slipped and it went around his neck.

'He must have been there a few seconds before his stepdad went to help him. He did everything he could for Harry as the paramedics were called. They took him to hospital.

'He was put on a life support machine but the damage was so bad that the doctors couldn't do anything for him and they had to take the decision to turn it off.'

Harry was a pupil at Carcroft Primary School for a few months where staff described him as a 'happy' youngster.

School head Simon Hickton said: 'Harry had been at our school only a few months but had settled well. He was full of energy , smiles and had new friends.

'Just the other weekend his grandma had told a member of staff that he was as happy as she had known him.

'He had already bought his class teacher an end of year card and present to thank her for teaching him.

'Our utmost sympathy is with his family as they come to terms with his tragic accident.'

A post mortem is due to be carried out and an inquest will be opened in Doncaster next week.

A police spokesman confirmed that Harry died on Tuesday morning at Sheffield Children's Hospital and the death was not being treated as suspicious.