Farmer's ribs were broken by bull

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A bull broke every rib in a County Tyrone farmer's body after it crushed him against the side of a pen, an inquest has found.

Harold Loughrin, who was days short of his 80th birthday, was killed at his Cookstown farm in June 2007.

Mr Loughrin had lived all his life on the MacKenny Road farm and fed the bull twice a day for three years.

The inquest in Dungannon was told he had probably entered the bull's enclosure to check its water.

Farm labourer Gerard Bell said Mr Loughrin usually would not have gone into the enclosure with the bull.

"Often he would just throw the meal in, it isn't something you have to do except when you want to check the water," he said.

Mr Loughrin's wife Isobel said she had last seen her husband an hour before his body was discovered.

It just was a freak accident, he fed it twice a day for three years Victim's wife

They had been visiting a relative in hospital before Mr Loughrin went outside to do some yard work.

When he did not return for his dinner she became concerned and sent her daughter to find him.

After the inquest she said: "It just was a freak accident, he fed it (the bull) twice a day for three years."

Assistant state pathologist Dr Peter Ingram said the victim was trapped against the side of the pen by the bull.

He said injuries to the thoracic aorta (artery) and left main bronchus (airway) were consistent with his chest having been crushed between the bull and the side of the pen and possibly also having been knelt on.

He said there were between four and five fatalities from livestock in Northern Ireland every year.

Coroner Suzanne Anderson found the farmer died from multiple rib fractures associated with partial transection of the thoracic aorta and transection of the left main bronchus.