Inquest rules death of baby savaged by family dog was an accident
A four-month-old baby who was snatched from his mother’s arms by the family dog and savaged died as the result of an accident, an inquest in England concluded.
Mother-of-two Jade Rogers was with her two young sons when the Staffordshire bull terrier-type dog, called Bailey, entered the room and attacked, a hearing at Essex Coroner’s Court in Chelmsford was told.
Baby Archie Joe Darby died after he was bitten by the animal at the house in Harwich Road, Colchester, on October 13.
Miss Rogers managed to save her other son Daniel-Jay, who was 22 months old at the time, and Essex coroner Eleanor McGann praised her for her "bravery" in fighting off the aggressive animal.
Detective Inspector Gary Biddle, senior investigating officer, said the boys’ mother barricaded the dog in the conservatory and had to hold the door shut to prevent it from continuing to attack her children.
"Jade called the ambulance service and did a heroic job removing the dog from the house to a conservatory area," he said. "Because of the behaviour of the dog, being very aggressive at the time, Jade barricaded herself against the door to stop the dog getting back into the house.
"She could not leave the door and let the ambulance service in.
"Fortunately police attended very quickly. They shouted through the letter box to understand why she couldn’t get to the door and she shouted out why.
"We were left with no option but to force entry.
"They saw Archie lying on the floor face down with significant injuries and Daniel sitting on the sofa with significant head injuries in a very upset state.
"The children were removed to Colchester General Hospital."
Archie was pronounced dead at 4.02pm.
Police called specialist dog handlers to remove the dog and it took several officers to achieve this.
"We had to use specialist equipment to do that because of his continued aggressive behaviour," said Mr Biddle. "It never stopped for the whole time until it was put to sleep."
In a statement given to police, Miss Rogers said she was alone in the house with her two children at the time of the attack.
She had moved into the house, which belonged to her sister Clare Ferdinand and her sister’s husband John Ferdinand, the week before, and Mr Ferdinand had left the address around an hour before the attack.
Mr Biddle said: "Jade was in the living room with her two children. She had Archie in her arms. She was on the phone to Dan [her partner]. They were ’facetiming’ each other."
He said the dog entered the living room while Miss Rogers was on the phone.
"It growled and immediately attacked Daniel," Mr Biddle said. "Jade went to get up and tried to move the dog out of the room.
"It went straight for Daniel’s head, started biting and shaking his head while she had Archie in her arms.
"She tried to pull the dog off Daniel. It dropped Daniel and pulled Archie out of her arms.
"It then shook Archie around the room then dropped him.
"Jade said she knew instantly that Archie was dead. She decided to save Daniel, thought ’I can save Daniel’, ran into the kitchen with him, grabbed the phone and dialled 999.
"The dog was still having a go at Daniel, grabbed him off the kitchen counter.
"On the 999 call you can hear him attacking Daniel and you can hear Jade shouting and screaming, trying to get the dog off."
