An exasperated coroner said his repeated warnings about the dangers of parents sharing their beds with young children were being ignored, after the death of a seventh Bradford child in 12 months.

Roger Whittaker spoke out after two-month-old Chadija Irram Jamil died as she slept in her parents' bed at their home in Fitzroy Road, Barkerend.

Mr Whittaker said her death had been "sad and unnecessary".

He added: "It seems to me that the dangers of death are so great that the practice should be discontinued. I've raised this issue time and time again over the last 12 months, but nobody appears to listen."

The inquest heard how mother Asifa Kokhar had been woken by her husband at 4am on November 2 last year to feed the youngster who had trouble sleeping at night.

The couple eventually went back to sleep with the infant between them, and their other three-year-old daughter in a single bed alongside them.

Mrs Kokhar said she had awoken again shortly afterwards, to discover Chadija motionless next to her.

Philip Batman, a consultant pathologist at the BRI, said cause of death was asphyxiation after over-laying. There was a debate in the medical world about the dangers and benefits of sharing a bed with parents, he added.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Whittaker said: "Chadija was a well looked after and loved little girl within a secure family which had adopted a practice of sleeping together in a double bed with a single bed next to it, next to the wall."

He admitted the practice might have some benefits but said the high number of such deaths involving children in the Bradford area "must be reflected throughout the nation".