Baby girl died after ‘sudden and unanticipated’ attack by pet dog – inquest

The parents of a seven-month-old baby who was killed by a pet dog in an attack lasting less than a second intervened immediately to protect her, an inquest has heard.

Security camera stills presented to Coventry Coroner’s Court showed the Belgian Malinois dog was pulled away and medical help was summoned immediately for Elle Doherty, after an incident described by coroner Delroy Henry as “sudden and unanticipated”.

An hour long-inquest on Thursday was told Elle was pronounced dead in hospital an hour after the attack, having suffered a “catastrophic” head injury at her home in Shorncliffe Road, Coundon, on the afternoon of June 16.

Her parents, Sean and Natasha Doherty, did not attend the hearing after expressing what Mr Henry said was a “wholly understandable” wish to be excused.

A series of freeze-frame CCTV images – recorded by an indoor security camera – showed the couple sitting on and standing near a sofa as Elle looked out of a nearby patio window, with the dog, which weighed 31 kilogrammes and was called Zeus, standing nearby.

Subsequent stills showed the couple intervening to pull the three-year-old dog away, and protect and cradle Elle, who had suffered skull fractures.

Commenting on the stills, Detective Inspector Anthony Hibbert agreed with Mr Henry’s suggestions that the incident “transpired within a second or less” and that both parents “immediately reacted to this situation by removing Zeus from the equation” and taking hold of both the dog and Elle.

Mr Hibbert told the inquest: “It appears from when you watch the footage, maybe baby Elle slightly leant on Zeus and that is when Zeus attacks baby Elle.”

In a written statement to the court, Mr Doherty said they had acquired Zeus as a puppy from a breeder in Gloucester in October 2020.

Describing the fatal incident, Mr Doherty said he at first thought that Zeus, who had previously been trained by two separate dog experts, had “pinned” down a second family pet, a 15-year-old French bulldog.

His statement, read to the court by the coroner, said: “We were just chatting and suddenly (Natasha) shouted, ‘No’. I grabbed him (Zeus) – I think it was his collar.

“I chucked him outside. Elle was on the floor crying. Everything happened so quickly.”

Mr Doherty added of Zeus: “He was good around people, good around other dogs. The only thing he didn’t like was if he was surprised by another dog. He would just start barking.

“He never showed any signs of aggression.”

In her statement, Mrs Doherty said Zeus was quite a reactive dog, was muzzle-trained and was “fine with other people”.

“When Elle was born, Zeus showed no interest,” her statement said. “He would sniff her a little sometimes but he was fine.”

The inquest heard a dog-handler was called to the scene and used a sedation dart to remove Zeus from the garden.

The dog was taken to a vet’s and put down.

Recording a narrative verdict at the end of the hearing, Mr Henry said Elle was initially looking out of a window in the living room.

The coroner added: “The dog has shown no signs of aggression to baby Elle or, indeed, any of the occupants of that home. Baby Elle brushed against him. I find as a fact that the dog bit the head of baby Elle.

“Sadly, baby Elle died a short time later the same day. The death of baby Elle was caused by a sudden and unanticipated behaviour of a large dog in a family home.

“This is certainly a tragic incident – a family changed forever. I really don’t think there are any words that I could say to console the family of Elle save to re-iterate that my heart goes out to the Elle’s parents and family.”