THE mother of six-year-old Imie Harrison has spoken about the horrific moment she found out her daughter had died.

Imie slipped into the canal by Wolverley Court Lock, near Springfield Park, Kidderminster, before 6.20pm on Tuesday last week after two other children, who have not been named, had fallen in. Her twin brother CJ ran home to Usmere Road to raise the alarm.

Imie was later pronounced dead at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Lisa Harrison, aged 44, sitting alongside son Sam Taylor, 25 and daughter Amy Taylor, 23, said she “blanked out” and felt “totally numb” when she discovered what had happened.

“I had picked Imie up from school,” she said. “She was playing out the front with her two friends and at about 4.30pm I left to go to the yard [at Sugar Loaf Lane where Mrs Harrison owns three horses]. I left her with my son Sam and daughter Abby [Taylor, 21].

“At about 6.20pm I got a text from Sam saying ‘Please come quick – Imie is face down in the canal’. I was driven down to Springfield Park and all the ambulances were there. As soon as I saw them, I knew how serious it was – I just blanked out.”

Sam said: “CJ ran round to me saying ‘Imie’s dead’. I phoned everyone I could – that is when the paramedics came down.”

Mrs Harrison added: “Most of the estate ran down and the paramedics took Imie into the ambulance, trying to revive her. They put her in the air ambulance and flew her off. I was totally numb.”

She said she had been heartened by the amount of public support the family had received, explaining: “All the kids played out together and everyone knew her out here, down to the people in the chip shop down the road.

“I would ask people not to judge us. Kids are going to be kids. People think they were miles away but you can see the canal from outside our house and, for the kids, they are just walking through a little field.”

Mrs Harrison, who said  she always called Imie “my princess”, said: “I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest. I miss the silly little things – it is so hard.

“I wake up in the morning and I expect to see her walk in through my bedroom door.

I sit on the sofa and I expect her to come through the door and sit with me. When I make a cup of tea, I expect her to ask me to pour her one.

“She was really, really lovely. She cared about everybody.

Even at school, from when she first started, Imie was the first one there if someone was upset. She was like everyone’s mother.

"She did have a cheeky, naughty side to her. If I told her not to do something, like not to play up the road, you can guarantee she would go up there.

"She wouldn’t let me go and get sweets for her – I had to give her the money so she could get them. She loved horses and having her nails done and she looked after her brother CJ as well.”

Family and friends are raising money via Facebook group Imie Harrison – final ride fund to have a horse-drawn carriage at her funeral – details of which have not yet been arranged.

"She loved everything about horses,” said Mrs Harrison.

“We have got three horses and she loved them – she used to go and brush them. She loved ponies so we want that to be her last ride.”

Last week Imie’s headteacher at St John’s CE Primary School, Lawrence Gittins, described her as a “much-loved and talented girl”, who would be “missed very much”.