Baby loses battle for life a month after mauling by his parents’ dogs
A BABY boy attacked at home by his family’s Staffordshire bull terriers has lost his fight for life.
Reuben McNulty was less than a month old when he was savaged by the two pets on November 18.
Paramedics were called to the £160,000 home in the early hours and Reuben was taken to Peterborough City Hospital with life-threatening head injuries.
He was later transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where he died on Thursday.
His parents, Daniel McNulty, 31, and Amy Litchfield, 28, were questioned by police and released pending further inquiries.
The unemployed couple from Yaxley, Cambridgeshire, were said to have doted on the pets called Fizz and Dotty.
At the time of the attack, Ms Litchfield’s father Paul defended the couple and described Reuben’s mauling as a “freak accident”.
He said: “At the end of the day it’s just a big freak accident and everyone’s making a big thing of it.
“They’ve done nothing wrong and the way it’s being portrayed at the minute, they’re horrible parents.
“They bloody aren’t, they’ve been fantastic. The thing is there’s a lot at stake here for everybody, not just them, for us as well, as a family.”
A neighbour said he had urged the couple to “be careful” around the dogs after they brought Reuben home from hospital.
The man, who asked not to be named, said: “He [Mr McNulty] was showing people his new baby because he was so proud of him.
“When he showed me the pictures, I said be careful because those dogs might not be used to the baby.
“I know what dogs are like when Tiny Reuben McNulty, top right, was savaged by family Staffordshire bull terriers Fizz and Dotty, above. The two dogs were later destroyed
they get jealous. He said, ‘I will do. Me and Amy were thinking about that anyway’.”
After Reuben was born, Ms Litchfield posted photographs of him on Facebook, along with pictures of Fizz and Dotty.
Another neighbour said he was woken by police sirens in the early hours on the day of the attack.
He said: “There were seven police vehicles, two police vans, an ambulance and paramedics. The police brought a man and a woman out of the house in handcuffs.
“Straight away, the ambulance left the house with a police escort.
I knew then that someone must be very badly hurt.
“I thought it was a domestic incident because the woman in that house has in the past kicked a man out of the house and we have heard tons of shouting from over there.”
Cambridgeshire Police said: “Both of the dogs have been destroyed.
“A 28-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man, both from Yaxley, who were arrested on suspicion of child neglect, have been released under investigation.
“The death is not being treated as suspicious and has been reported to the coroner.”