A woman sent her mother a picture of cattle before she was “trampled” to death by a cow in the same field, an inquest has heard. Rebekah Morris, known as Becki, had been walking her dog in Littlethorpe, Leicestershire, on the evening of July 9, 2022, when the incident happened.
A jury inquest, which began at Leicester Coroner’s Court on Monday, heard the 29-year-old had sent the image with the word “cows” to her mother during her walk, at just before 9pm. The inquest was told Ms Morris stopped responding to text messages, which prompted her parents to search for her in the field shown in the photo, where they found her injured.
She went into cardiac arrest and, despite efforts by paramedics, she was pronounced dead at 11.21pm. Forensic pathologist Dr Michael Biggs, who carried out Ms Morris’s post-mortem examination, told the jury her injuries were “consistent with hoof marks from a trampling incident”.
He told the court she had suffered blunt force traumatic injuries and abrasions to her upper chest and left shoulder. “There was extensive damage to the liver, which led to severe internal bleeding. That’s the main reason why Becki died,” he said.
He added that the number of injuries was “not so large” that he believed the whole herd had been involved and instead thought it was a “relatively brief incident involving one cow”. Dr Biggs said there was “enough of a suspicion” to do a forensic post-mortem examination to “rule out” the involvement of a person.
“There were no other injuries to suggest the involvement of another person,” he said. “All injuries were consistent with a livestock trampling incident. The type and location of the injuries in this case, for me, were indicative of something else, such as a large, heavy creature – such as a cow.”
There were traces of alcohol and medications in Ms Morris’s blood at the time, but these were “not a dangerous combination”, Dr Biggs told the inquest. The inquest, which is expected to last five days, continues.