Girl (2) died tragically after bolting horse crashed into gate in stables at north Dublin home, inquest hears

Dublin Coroner’s Court

A two-year-old Dublin girl died tragically after a horse bolted and crashed into a gate at a stables in her north Dublin home, an inquest has heard.

Lillie Weldon suffered fatal injuries as a result of the incident which occurred when she and her father, Derek, were taking her Shetland pony out into a yard at the back of their home at Sundrive Road, Rush, Co Dublin on October 26, 2022.

A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Weldon and his partner, Ellen, were too traumatised by the death of their daughter to attend the hearing on Thursday.

The coroner, Aisling Gannon, said Lillie’s family were aware of the inquest but categorically did not wish to be present in court as they were still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their daughter.

In a statement read out at the hearing, Mr Weldon explained how he kept stables including a half-acre paddock at his home.

He also told the coroner that at the time he was keeping a four-year-old gelding which belonged to a friend at the stables free of charge.

Mr Weldon said he did not operate the stables as a commercial enterprise but as a hobby.

The inquest heard Mr Weldon had brought his daughter out into the yard of the stables with her Shetland pony at around 5.30pm.

As they were bringing the pony into the yard, Mr Weldon said his friend’s horse which was on the other side of a galvanised gate in a paddock had bolted.

He described how the horse ran into the gate causing it to swing open and hit his daughter who fell to the ground.

Mr Weldon rushed to help his daughter and dialled 999 only to be informed that no ambulance was immediately available.

He was told to make his way to Swords fire station where an ambulance would be available to transfer her to Children’s Health Ireland at Temple Street.

The inquest heard that despite 45 minutes of attempts to resuscitate her in the ambulance, she was deemed dead on arrival at the hospital.

A consultant in emergency medicine at Temple Street, Rasha Sawaya, said the girl had suffered a traumatic cardiac arrest and was unresponsive to any attempts to resuscitate her.

She was formally pronounced dead at 7.15pm.

Sergeant John Cannon of Lusk garda station, confirmed that an investigation into the fatal incident had been completed and he was satisfied that there was no suspicion of any third-party role in relation to the girl’s death.

The inquest heard that the Health and Safety Authority were informed of the girl’s death but were satisfied that her death was not a work-related accident.

A postmortem found that Lillie had sustained significant injuries to her chest and abdomen. They included a collapsed lung, internal bleeding and organ damage.

It concluded she had become extremely unwell very quickly after becoming unconscious at the scene of a “traumatic and unexpected accident.”

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Ms Gannon said the girl had died from catastrophic multiple injuries to her body.

She asked Sgt Cannon to convey her sincere sympathy and condolences to her family.

The coroner also wished Lillie’s parents every happiness for the future after being informed that the couple were expecting another baby later this month.