Brooklyn, 11 died of massive blood loss

Inquest hears boy, 11, stabbed 27 times by 'obsessed' uncle

- DAVID RALEIGH 

A SCHOOLBOY who was murdered in Limerick four years ago died from massive blood loss after being beaten with a hammer and stabbed over 20 times by his uncle, his inquest heard yesterday. 

A jury at Limerick Coroner’s Court found Brooklyn Colbert, 11, with an address at Aherlow Close, Caherdavin, Limerick, died by “unlawful killing”.

His uncle Paddy Dillon, of Moyross, Limerick, who was 26 at the time, struck his innocent nephew across the head with a hammer and stabbed him 27 times in a frenzied attack at Dillon’s aunt’s home at Ballynanty Beg on November 3, 2019.

A post mortem by State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster revealed Brooklyn had tried to defend himself and that his death was “very rapid”.

Brooklyn sustained “blunt force trauma from a blow” to his head, and the “depressed fracture of his skull was in keeping with a hammer strike.

Dr Bolster said Brooklyn also suffered “lacerations to the back of the scalp in keeping with a further blow” of the hammer.

The 11-year-old also sustained “sharp force trauma” from “27 stab wounds”.

And Brooklyn sustained at least one “slash wound to the middle of his left elbow joint” which Dr Bolster said was “in keeping with a defence wound”. There was also “multiple stab wounds to his vital organs, including his heart. She said: “Significant force was used by way of a single cutting edge knife with a 13cm blade.”