Lying in a hospital bed with his hand swathed in bandages, this is the five-week-old baby who had his finger ripped off by a fox.
Denny Dolan’s terrified mother Hayley Cawley found her living room ‘covered in blood’ and the fox mauling her son during the attack in their home.
Last night Denny’s aunt said she believed the fox had been trying to ‘drag the baby out of the house’ when the child’s mother came across the horrifying scene
Mother-of-three Miss Cawley, 28, wrestled with the fox and fought it off, but her son was left soaked in blood and had gashes to his face and a black eye where the fox hit him against the door frame.
Denny had to have his finger reattached in surgery and needed stitches to his cheek, as well as treatment for injuries to his face and head.
His mother was said to be ‘shaking’ and ‘traumatised’ yesterday and keeping a vigil by her baby’s bedside at the Evelina Children’s Hospital in central London with her 28-year-old partner Paul Dolan.
Mr Dolan’s sister Lorraine Murphy, 42, said her brother had told her what had happened and she had ‘feared the worst’ after the baby was taken to hospital.
She said: ‘The fox was trying to drag the baby out of the house. Hayley kicked the fox and it ran away. The baby was covered with blood and his hand was badly damaged. The fox was shaking the baby by his hand in its teeth and hitting him off the door frame. There was blood everywhere.
‘Hayley heard the baby’s screams and she came running into the room and fought the fox off the baby. He was covered in blood and there was blood on the doors.
‘It was Hayley’s actions which saved the child. She was there so quickly and she fought the fox off.’
She added: ‘When my family arrived, my mum was screaming and my sister was crying because there was so much blood.’
She said that Denny was making a good recovery in hospital. She added: ‘Denny has four cuts to his head, stitches in his cheek, there are dents in his head and he has a black eye.’
Miss Murphy said the family believed the fox had come in through the back door of their Housing Association property, which had a faulty lock that staff had allegedly refused to repair.