Why was our two-year-old left to die in nursery playhouse?

Rhiya Malin suffered "compression of the neck" after her head became caught in a gap between the roof and a wall of the wooden hut at the day nursery.

When staff found Rhiya, she was hanging from the space with her feet a few inches off the ground. Ambulance crews tried to resuscitate the girl but she died in hospital.

Rhiya's parents, Jay and Shatl, have spoken out publicly to ask why their only child was left alone and why there were no staff on hand to save her.

The accident happened at Eton Manor Children's Day Nursery in Chigwell, Essex, which was criticised over the levels of staff supervision before Rhiya's death last November.

Between September 2004 and September 2005, there were seven complaints about the nursery, including one raising concerns about the number of staff caring for children under the age of two.

But a report by watchdog Ofsted in 2006 found there were "good measures in place to ensure that risks to children's safety, both indoors and outdoors, are minimised".

Mr Malin said: "There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about my two-year-old daughter hanging there. Was she scared and in pain? Did she call out for me? I cry every day.

"We still cannot believe that we have been robbed of our precious daughter in this way and find it impossible to comprehend that anyone could cynically describe this preventable incident as a freak accident. Every day for us is a struggle knowing that it is yet another day we need to face without our precious little girl and friend."

Mr Malin, 37, said he and his wife, a 29-year-old life coach, want to know exactly what happened to their child.

The IT consultant said: "We want answers and we aren't getting them. How did Rhiya manage to get in there unseen? Where were the staff and why wasn't someone looking out for her? The police must leave no stone unturned." Essex police are not treating Rhiya's death as suspicious but officers are compiling evidence for the coroner. The official cause of death was cardiac arrest following compression of the neck. It is not clear how Rhiya's head became lodged as she played .

The private nursery, which is run by the Casterbridge Care and Education firm, reopened shortly after the tragedy. It has removed similar playhouses from all its nurseries. A spokesman for the company said: "We are co-operating fully with the police and other authorities but we cannot pre-empt the investigation by commenting further."

Ofsted confirmed it had launched its own investigation.

A spokeswoman for Epping Forest district council, which is responsible for health and safety at the nursery, said: "We are unable to carry out our investigation until the police inquiry has finished."