Inquest into four-month-old baby girl's mauling by jealous pet hears of dangers of dogs

Mia O'Connell. “She was always smiling from the day she was born,” Mia’s aunt said.

A coroner has highlighted the potential dangers of dogs after an inquest heard how a four-month-old baby girl was mauled to death by a jealous family pet as she slept.

The family of baby Mia O’Connell has now called for new laws and stricter checks on the rehoming process for rescue dogs, and for more rigorous background checks on the animals, following the inquest on Thursday into her death in Waterford in 2021.

“This dog was a small terrier. There was no indication that he was vicious,” Mia’s aunt, Heidi O’Connell said outside Cork City Coroner’s Court on Thursday.

“There were some concerns but never in a million years would you think something like this would happen to you or to your family.

“I would ask people to be very careful in the future, make sure you know what you’re doing, where you're getting the dog from, make sure he’s safe, make sure your family is safe.” 

Cork City Coroner Philip Comyn, who owns two dogs, said he fully appreciates the wonderful sense of companionship they give but he said he hopes lessons can be learned from this tragedy, and he urged people to research dog behaviour.

“At the end of the day, dogs are still animals and can still be unpredictable. This is especially so when a dog’s position in the family home is displaced by the arrival of a newcomer, in this case, baby Mia.

Extreme vigilance is required in such circumstances and particularly as we’ve heard where the dog indicated that it was very unhappy and indeed had snapped at Mia when Mia first arrived home from the hospital.

The inquest heard how baby Mia, her mother, Ella Woods, and her father, Rhys O’Connell, who was in prison at the time, had been living with Rhys’s mother, Noirin O’Connell and her husband, Barry Dillon, in a terraced house at St Mochuas Terrace in Clashmore.

Mr Dillon had rehomed a little dachshund cross terrier, named Red, a few months before Mia's birth following a private rehoming transaction. In her deposition, Pauline Doyle, the woman who arranged the rehoming, said the animal had been put up for rehoming because he would not hunt. 

She said it had not been assessed for temperament and she said she warned Mr Dillon not to put him around children. But Mr Comyn was told that the dog snapped at Mia when she was brought home to the house shortly after her birth.

Ms O’Connell said she had “big concerns” about the dog and pleaded with Mr Dillon to get rid of it. “I hated that dog. It was never in the house when I was there. But it was Barry’s way or no way,” she said.

In her deposition, Ella said she loved animals but also had concerns about the "anxious" dog. 

The inquest heard how Ella put her daughter to bed at around 9.30pm on June 6, 2021, and was downstairs having a few drinks with her sister, Emily, who screamed after checking on the children upstairs. She found Mia lying on the floor with severe head injuries, and the dog standing nearby with blood on its face.

Ms O’Connell began CPR and screamed at Mr Dillon to call an ambulance. They said it took 50 minutes to arrive. Garda Michelle Meehan said gardaí were alerted to the incident just after 1am and arrived at the house at 1.15am where she began CPR on the baby before paramedics arrived later.

Both she and Sgt Thomas Gahan said both Ella and Emily appeared intoxicated and didn’t seem to fully realise the seriousness of what was happening. Mia was rushed by ambulance under garda escort to Cork University Hospital where she was pronounced dead at about 3am.

The dog was destroyed the following day.

Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margot Bolster, said the cause of death was severe traumatic brain injury consistent with an animal attack, in this case a dog. She said Mia would not have suffered.

Mr Comyn recorded a verdict of misadventure and said opportunities had been missed to deal with a dog that was unhappy around a baby. “This dog should not have been around children,” he said. He also praised gardaí for their thorough investigation of what was a traumatic case.

Speaking outside, Mia’s aunt, Heidi O’Connell, urged people to think very, very carefully about bringing a dog into their home.

“At the end of the day, a dog is an animal. You can’t predict what’s going to happen, you can’t predict what they’re thinking, you just don’t know what they’re going to do,” she said.

“Be very, very vigilant and careful. You never expected this to happen, but unfortunately, it has happened to us.” 

She also paid an emotional tribute to Mia, describing her an “angel of a baby”.

“She was always smiling from the day she was born,” she said. 

She was a blessing to us. We had had a rough couple of years and she just brought joy back into our lives.

“Nothing will ever be the same without her again.” She described the pain of what happened to them that June night as unbearable. I don’t think it will ever go away. Our hearts are broken forever. We’ll never get her back. It’s like a nightmare.”