A schoolboy who was murdered in Limerick 4 years in the past, died from large blood loss after being crushed with a hammer and stabbed over 20 instances by his uncle, his inquest heard in the present day.
jury at Limerick Coroner’s Courtroom discovered that Brooklyn Colbert, (11), with an handle at Aherlow Shut, Caherdavin, died by “illegal killing”.
The boy’s uncle, Paddy Dillon, of Moyross, Limerick, who was 26 on the time, struck his harmless nephew throughout the top with a hammer and stabbed him 27 instances in a frenzied assault at Dillon’s aunt’s dwelling at Ballynanty Beg, Limerick, on November 3, 2019.
The submit mortem on the physique, carried out by State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, revealed Brooklyn had tried to defend himself throughout the assault and that his demise would, Dr Bolster stated, would been “very speedy”.
Brooklyn sustained “blunt power trauma from a blow” to his head, and the “depressed fracture of his cranium was in step with a blow of a hammer”.
Dr Bolster stated Brooklyn additionally suffered “lacerations to the again of the scalp in step with an extra blow” of the hammer.
The sports-mad eleven yr previous additionally sustained “sharp power trauma” from “twenty-seven stab wounds”.
Brooklyn additionally sustained at the very least one “slash wound to the center of his left elbow joint” which Dr Bolster stated was “in step with a defence wound”.
Dr Bolster discovered that demise was resulting from “haemorrhage, bleeding and shock, resulting from a number of stab wounds”.
“He could not have survived in any respect,” she stated.
On the day of the homicide, a neighbour offered a deposition through which she stated she had spoken to Dillon and Brooklyn, who had been each in glad kind smiling and laughing collectively.
The girl stated her final sighting of the shut pair was of them strolling collectively into Dillon’s aunt’s home the place, unbeknownst to anybody, Dillon was about to set on the unsuspecting boy with a hammer and knife.
After killing his nephew Dillon walked to a garda station and instantly confessed to the homicide.
Dillon pleaded responsible earlier than the Central Legal Courtroom in 2021 and was sentenced to the necessary sentence of life in jail for the homicide.
Coroner, John McNamara, and Garda Inspector Gary Thompson, Bruff Garda station, supplied their sympathies and condolences to members of the boy’s household, together with his heartbroken mom Sonia Aylmer, who attended on the inquest listening to, held at Kilmallock Courthouse, Co Limerick.
Mr McNamara advised the household: “I do know you might have been by loads already and nobody right here needs to compound your grief or your grieving course of”.
Mr McNamara stated Dr Bolster’s post-mortem report was “not for the faint-hearted” and he recommended to the household that solely a “abstract” of the total 20-page post-mortem report be heard as a result of “harrowing” proof.
Sonia Aylmer, Brooklyn’s courageous mom, advised the coroner that she would stay within the courtroom to take heed to a summarised model of the report.
In her deposition, Ms Aylmer stated that having regarded again previous to the homicide, she believed Dillon, her step-brother, had developed an “obsession” along with her solely son.
She stated Dillon would check with Brooklyn as “my king” and he or she remembered he was “at all times hugging” Brooklyn.
“I believe he needed to kill Brooklyn after which himself in order that they might each be collectively in heaven,” Ms Aylmer wrote.
Brooklyn, his mom and Dillon, had spent the day before today collectively, eating-out in Limerick metropolis, shopping for sweets, and watching films.
Detective Inspector James Ruddle, Roxboro Street Garda Station, who was the primary emergency responder on the scene, advised the inquest that when he approached the entrance door of the home on Shanabooley Street, Ballynanty Beg, he may see blood on the within of the door’s glass panelling.
Gardaí pressured open the entrance door, and Detective Insp Ruddle discovered Brooklyn’s lifeless physique “on the kitchen flooring which was lined in blood”.
“Brooklyn Colbert was mendacity on his abdomen, his eyes had been closed, he was not respiration, there was no signal of life.”
Detective Insp Ruddle stated he additionally noticed “a hammer with blood on the deal with mendacity near (Brooklyn’s) head”.
Brooklyn’s father Wayne Colbert, wrote in his deposition which was learn out on his behalf by gardaí, that he “recognized the physique of my beautiful boy” on the morgue at College Hospital Limerick later that night time.
Talking after the inquest, Brooklyn’s mom, Sonia Aylmer, stated it had been “a really onerous day” but it surely had helped convey her some “closure”.
She thanked individuals “for preserving Brooklyn’s reminiscence alive”, and he or she stated Brooklyn, her solely baby, was “a particular boy” who left “a legacy” of kindness in his brief life.
“He’ll stay on endlessly, his legacy will stay on, I’ll make sure that of that.”
