By Sarah McPhee
Warning: Graphic content
A five-week-old baby boy was taken from his sleeping mother’s arms and fatally mauled by the family dog about a month after it killed a neighbour’s cocker spaniel, an inquest has heard.
Deputy state coroner Carmel Forbes is presiding over an inquest into seven fatal dog attacks, including the death of the newborn baby, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, on the Central Coast in July 2021.
A Staffordshire terrier, not the dog involved in the fatal attack.
The inquest will explore issues including processes of dog breed identification, interim measures while a dog is awaiting potential declaration as a dangerous, menacing or restricted animal, the efficacy of restricted breed regimes and effectiveness of public awareness campaigns.
Counsel assisting the coroner David Kell, SC, said the inquest was about identifying any shortcomings by people or organisations and lessons to be learned, rather than legal liability.
In his opening address on Monday, Kell said the six-year-old dog involved in the baby’s death had been advertised on Gumtree as a pure breed American Staffordshire terrier puppy and was bought by the baby’s father for $500 in 2015.
The dog was microchipped and registered as an American Staffordshire terrier.
In June 2021, a ranger was called to the family home after a neighbour’s cocker spaniel was found dead on the back porch with neck wounds and blood in its fur. The inquest heard the ranger thought the attacking dog had “pitbull in him” as he was tan with a liver nose and yellow eyes.
Kell said there was a hole under the fence between the properties, but as there were no witnesses to the attack, it was “impossible to determine” whether the cocker spaniel was dragged under the fence or entered the yard of its own accord, “although this was referred to as being highly improbable”.
Due to a carve-out in the legislation around trespassing, council was “unable to proceed with enforcement action” over that attack, he said.
However, a notice of intention to declare the surviving dog a restricted breed was issued to the owner and baby’s father, requiring him to prove the dog was not a pitbull within 28 days. He was granted a two-week extension to comply after he contacted council and advised them his wife had recently given birth, which gave him until late July.
In early July, Kell said the baby’s father had fallen asleep one night on the lounge and the mother was asleep in a low-lying rocking chair holding the newborn after it was fed.
“Which is understandable for a new mother and very, very tired and exhausted parents,” he said.
Kell said the father later told police he woke up to the mother with the baby in her hands, crying, “The dog’s got the baby.”
He said the father’s evidence was: “From what I can gather, [she’s] woken up and realised the baby’s not there. She’s walked in and found the baby on the floor in the baby’s bedroom.
“She’s come running out to me, ‘Call the ambulance, call the ambulance,’ which is what’s happened.”
The father told police the baby had bruises all over his body, blood around his nose and a puncture wound to his chest. The inquest heard the mother performed CPR on instruction from a triple zero operator, before emergency services took over.
A police officer saw a dog in the backyard with blood on its snout, and blood stains on the nursery carpet, Kell said. A paramedic determined the baby’s injuries were “incompatible with life”.
Kell said police found a small blood stain on the front of the rocking chair consistent with the baby “being pulled down” by the dog, and a crime scene report concluded the death was a tragic accident with no suspicious circumstances.
The council arranged for the dog to be taken from the property and euthanised.
The inquest continues.