The father of Georgina Bywater has vowed to discover how his daughter became trapped in a tumble dryer.

The three-year-old was discovered by her sister in the dryer with the door closed on Friday morning at their home in Waldron Avenue, Brierley Hill.

She was taken to Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley but was later pronounced dead.

The children's father Nick, who did not live with them, said he had been with his daughter only hours before her death.

He said: "I can still remember her sitting on my knee looking up at me with a mouth full of chocolate. I can't imagine what life will be like without her."

The 28-year-old tiler said it was thought that the youngster climbed into the dryer in the early hours.

He said: "I can't believe that she could lock that dryer herself. If that proves the case, I'll be talking to my solicitors and taking the matter further." A post mortem will be carried out today and West Midlands Police said last night the death was being treated as "unexplained".

Police have impounded the tumble drier while they continue their investigations.

Roger Vincent, from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), said manufacturers had tried to change the locks on tumble drier doors so that such tragedies could not happen.

The death, although extremely rare, is one of several in the last ten years. In May 1999, a seven-week-old baby died when his three-year-old sister put him in a tumble drier at their home in Teddington, south- west London.

The sister thought she was being helpful because he had woken with a soiled nappy. In June 1998, 26-year-old Ray Washbrook, from Welwyn Garden City, died in a tumble drier when it restarted as he tried to remove a piece of linen.