The estranged mother of a girl who plunged to her death from an Oxford tower block has spoken of their two-year rift.

Natasha Saxton, 16, died after falling from the top floor of Hockmore Tower, in Banjo Road, Cowley, shortly before midnight last Friday.

She had lived with her father, David Braich, for about two years in a ninth-floor flat.

Yesterday, her mother Miranda Roberts, 35, described her daughter as a "bubbly" girl, but said she feared she was going off the rails.

The pair had not spoken since Natasha moved in with her father, but Mrs Roberts said she had tried to resume contact with her eldest daughter.

Mrs Roberts, who lives in Cowley with her partner Michael Roberts, Natasha's four brothers and sisters and two half-siblings, said: "She was just such a bubbly girl and good to her brothers and sisters.

"It was a very difficult situation. I thought I had a chance to sort things out with her, but now I can't. Now it's too late and her life has been taken.

"I feel like I could have done more and should have tried more.

"I didn't write her off and I wanted her to come back home to me. I tried to go down the right routes so no harm would come to her.

"We knew she was in trouble. I was always informed about what she was doing."

Mrs Roberts said she was told Natasha had previously tried to kill herself.

She learned of Natasha's death on Saturday and she added: "I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. I feel empty and I have a great big knot in my stomach.

"I was pulling my hair out and I was really shocked."

She added Natasha's siblings - Liam, 15, Nikki, 13, Jake, 12, Lezlea, nine, Patrick, six, and Chloe-Anne, three - were also devastated.

"This has been so hard, coming on top of Christmas, particularly for my children," she said.

"If I had my way I wouldn't have had Christmas, but we had to for the children.

"Natasha had a lot to live for. She was very loving to her brothers and sisters. She went to Peers School with the next two eldest and Nikki used to hang around with her."

The photograph above, taken when Natasha's grandmother - Mrs Roberts' mother, Patricia Harrington - visited from America, is now one of Mrs Roberts' treasured possessions.

Natasha left Peers School in the summer and was hoping to go to college. She told Mrs Harrington she wanted to be a beautician and possibly live in Spain.

Mrs Roberts said she still had questions about Natasha's death she hoped to have answered.

Police said the death was being treated as unexplained and not suspicious. The case has been handed to the coroner for an inquest.