A seven-month-old baby was mauled to death by her family’s pet dog after she is thought to have ‘leant’ on the dog while crawling on the living room floor, an inquest heard.
Elle Doherty was bitten to the rear of her head by Belgian Malinois Zeus in an attack which ‘transpired within a second or less’ and was captured on an indoor security camera.
A coroner heard the 35kg (4st 12oz) dog had never previously displayed any aggression but had required sessions with a behaviourist two years earlier. The expert had been contacted over the dog’s behaviour again in the run-up to the tragedy, the court heard.
The inquest this morning was shown a series of stills from the security camera in the living room of the family home in Coventry, West Midlands, which showed Elle’s parents Natasha and Sean Doherty sat on a sofa watching television as the infant sat on the floor looking out of the patio window.
Mrs Doherty, 39, was then shown walking out to the kitchen, followed by the dog, before returning with a carrier bag which the dog appeared ‘fixated with’.
As Elle moved towards the dog the animal showed no interest in the baby and continued to look at the red bag, before the next CCTV still was displayed showing Mrs Doherty leaning over the dog as her husband, Sean, 37, leapt to his feet.
Mr Doherty then dragged the dog to the kitchen as his wife cradled their bloodied child.
In a statement to police, Mr Doherty said his daughter had been ‘mobile from an early age’ and began ‘rolling around’ aged three or four months. She began crawling unaided around a month before she died last June, Coventry Coroner’s Court heard.
Describing the incident, Mr Doherty said the couple were ‘just chatting’ as Mrs Doherty was selecting which of Elle’s toys to take to a charity shop as the baby played, when ‘suddenly Tash shouted ‘No!’.
He added: ‘I jumped up and thought it was Archie (his mother-in-law’s French bulldog, who they were looking after), that he had pinned (down). I didn’t realise it was Elle.’
‘I grabbed him by the collar and chucked him outside. Blood was coming out of (Elle’s) head and she was crying. Everything happened so quickly, I didn’t even see Zeus go over (to her).’
Elle was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead around an hour later, the court heard.
The cause of death was given as head injuries sustained during a dog attack.
Zeus was sedated in the back garden by a police dog handler and taken to a vet where he was put down following the attack on June 16. Belgian Malinois are not classed as a dangerous breed.
In a statement read by coroner Delroy Henry, Mrs Doherty said the couple enlisted the help of a dog trainer for the first six months they had Zeus. But they later called in a behaviourist - who thought the dog believed he was the ‘alpha’ (male) of the house - for a handful of sessions in 2022 until the dog’s behaviour improved.
She described Zeus as ‘reactive’ who had many months previously once ‘nipped’ her. She said they were taught to ‘show that we were the alphas in the house, not the dog’. She added: ‘If we got his behaviour right inside the house it would transfer outside. It worked.’
She said the dog was fine with other people and showed ‘no interest’ in Elle after she was born. But the court heard that in the weeks leading up to the attack, Mrs Doherty contacted the behaviourist again after becoming ‘concerned’ when told the dog ‘really barked’ at her stepmother while she was out getting a manicure.
Mrs Doherty said: ‘We contacted (the behaviourist) as I didn’t want anything to happen, but then we went on holiday and when we got back he went away, so he didn’t get the chance to see Zeus before it happened.’
Mr Doherty said Zeus was a ‘big dog, but there was no malice’. He said the dog had a ‘loud bark but he was never aggressive to anyone’.
He said the dog, who was acquired from a breeder in Gloucester aged eight weeks in October 2020, was good around people and other dogs. But he added: ‘The only thing he didn’t like is if he was surprised by another dog. He would start barking, but he never bit or anything.’
He said that once they had Elle, Zeus’s behaviour didn’t change, and if the baby happened to collide with him while moving around on her walker the dog would ‘move out of the way’.
Reviewing the CCTV stills, Detective Inspector Anthony Hibbert told the Coventry Coroner Delroy Henry: ‘It appears Baby Elle may have leant on Zeus and that is when Zeus attacks Baby Elle.’
He told the court there was ‘no element of criminality’ in the incident on the part of the baby’s parents.
Delivering a narrative conclusion, Mr Henry said Zeus showed ‘no signs of aggression to Baby Elle or indeed the other occupants of the house.’ He said the dog was ‘pre-occupied with the contents of the bag when Baby Elle brushed against him. I find as fact the dog bit the head of Baby Elle and that puncture wounds caused catastrophic bleeding and cardiac arrest.’
He said the death was caused by the ‘sudden and unanticipated behaviour of a large dog in the family home.’
Mr and Mrs Doherty did not attend today’s hearing. Mr Henry said their lives had been ‘changed forever’.
The attack came after a ban on XL Bully dogs came into force last February following a spate of devastating attacks, leaving people dead or seriously injured.