XL bully: Caerphilly woman didn’t know about mum’s inquest

Warning: This story contains graphic images of dog attack injuries

Ms Jones said her niece had been incorrectly listed as the next of kin as she had initially called the police and details of the inquest had been sent to her.

When her niece logged into an old email account this week, she found an email from the coroner’s office.

“I wasn’t given any indication it was going to happen. I think it’s absolutely disgusting,” Ms Jones said.

She said she wanted the inquest to be held in public because she still had many unanswered questions.

“To be honest I was just gobsmacked. I never expected that to happen – I expected us to be able to be there as a family to be able to ask,” she said.

On 3 December 2022, Ms Patrick was being cared for by her son when she was repeatedly bitten by the now-banned dog.

The inquest concluded Ms Patrick died as a result of an “unprovoked attack at her home address by an XL bully dog”.

Her cause of death was given as “sepsis, pneumonia and infected scalp wounds” and “traumatic lacerations secondary to a dog attack”.