By Sarah McPhee
This story contains the image and name of a deceased Indigenous person.
The family of a two-year-old boy mauled to death by up to two dogs at a motel in the NSW Central West have cried as they told a coroner their “little fella” was helpless to the vicious attack, and his last thought would have been one of fear.
Jyedon Pollard suffered fatal injuries at the Cowra property on November 8, 2022. His parents and grandmother delivered emotional statements to the Coroner’s Court in Lidcombe on Friday before Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes, who is overseeing inquiries into seven fatal dog attacks.
Two-year-old Jyedon Pollard, who was killed in a dog attack in Cowra in November 2022.Credit: Instagram
Toys and a blue Nike onesie were displayed in court during a slideshow of photographs from his short life. Jyedon’s grandmother Narelle Pack, in a statement with his mother Takisha Pollard, said he had been a carefree child exploring that morning, “only to be attacked by vicious dogs” which “should not have been there, or at the very least been in a padlocked area”.
She said the toddler’s last moments “were full of horrific terror and pain” and he was helpless and defenceless.
“I can only pray he went unconscious before he really knew what was happening to him,” Pack said. “I have to live with the thought that his last conscious thought was fear.”
(L-R) Jyedon Pollard’s mother Takisha Pollard, grandmother Narelle Pack and father Brayden O’Hanlon.Credit: Sarah McPhee
Jyedon’s father Brayden O’Hanlon said his son was the “bravest, strongest, happiest little man” and they think of him every day. A smoking ceremony was held before proceedings.
Counsel assisting, David Kell, SC, said the death of a young child, especially in tragic circumstances, is of “profound significance to the community”.
In his opening remarks to the coroner, Kell said Jyedon had been staying with his mother at the motel and was captured on CCTV footage riding around on a scooter in the hour before his death.
He said Jyedon was off-camera and not in the direct sight of his mother or anyone else “at most for about eight-and-a-half minutes”.
Within that time, Kell said, the boy walked to a fenced common area at the rear of the motel where the dogs had been placed and opened the unlocked gate. Jyedon was attacked by the male rottweiler, Brutus, “and perhaps the second dog”, a female red heeler cross named Belle. This was not witnessed or captured on CCTV.
Jyedon Pollard died from injuries sustained when he was attacked by up to two dogs.Credit: Instagram
A crime scene officer later swabbed the gate latch, which was 1.1 metres off the ground, and trace DNA was “consistent with Jyedon having made contact”.
The motel owner had been carrying linen to a room when he noticed a scooter lying on its side and saw Belle outside the secured area. The man had also heard Jyedon’s mother calling out his name.
He later told police he “noticed the dogs were out, and I knew they were secured this morning”, and he saw “something lying on the ground down there, and I ran down, and it was a small little boy with my dog sitting over the top”. The toddler was severely injured and unresponsive.
The inquest heard that the owner picked up the boy and yelled, “Call an ambulance”. He was seen on the CCTV footage carrying Jyedon into a central car park area, met by the boy’s mother, who was “in a very distressed state”.
The two-year-old was driven to Cowra Hospital, then taken by helicopter to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, but died from injuries to his head and neck caused by multiple dog bites.
Jyedon’s mother told police at the hospital that “it happened so quick” as she had walked in and out of the motel room to do one task, and “he was gone”.
“How did he even get in there? Why wasn’t there a lock on the gate?” she said.
Kell said Professor Paul McGreevy, a veterinarian and expert in animal behaviour, had prepared a report that Brutus appeared to be a purebred rottweiler and Belle, a crossbreed Australian cattle dog.
At the time of Jyedon’s death, Brutus was microchipped but not registered, and Belle was neither. The dogs were not considered restricted breeds, there were no dangerous or menacing declarations in place, and they had not previously been reported or come to the council’s attention.
Kell said the coroner may consider whether there were any instances before Jyedon’s death that indicated whether either of the dogs had the capacity or propensity to act aggressively, adding that the absence of prior attacks does not appear to be a reliable indicator of attacking a person in future.
The inquest heard one woman said the rottweiler previously bit her dog’s neck through the fence, but she did not report the matter as she did not want to start problems with her new neighbour.
The dogs have been euthanised.
Kell said that on the morning of his death, Jyedon had tried to enter a front area of the property and was seen shaking the pool safety fence. A painter who was working on the motel told police he had said to the owner, “If he [Jyedon] gets into the yard where the dogs are, it’s going to be no good”.
Asked if his investigation was ongoing, the officer-in-charge, Senior Constable Stuart Tydd, said it was “not finalised and certainly not closed”.