A retired teacher was killed by cows in a ‘prolonged attack’ after he was tossed into the air during a walk with his friend along Hadrian’s Wall.
An inquest has heard cattle with their calves charged at 72-year-old grandfather Malcolm Flynn, from Carlisle, and one of them kicked him in the head while he lay seriously injured.
Today, his fellow rambler Christopher Barkless told a hearing in Morpeth, Northumberland that he had to climb a tree to escape the cows.
He called the emergency services but Mr Flynn could not be saved and died from chest injuries, the inquest heard.
The horrific attack happened in a field at Thirlwall Castle Farm near Gilsland, close to the Cumbria and Northumberland border, on September 11, 2020.
Assistant Coroner Kirsten Mercer told inquest jurors there was a sign warning walkers about the cows and calves in the field and how they could be ‘unpredictable’.
Mr Flynn, a father of two, was a member of the Ramblers’ Association and regularly walked with his friend Mr Barkless, and they were completing the Hadrian’s Wall route in sections when the accident happened.
The former chemistry teacher had developed glaucoma which affected his eyesight and was troubled by arthritic pain in his foot, the inquest heard.
Mr Barkless said they had set off from Gilsland that morning and after entering a field, he noticed four cows and their calves blocking the path, so he changed course.
He told the inquest: ‘I was not comfortable with that situation, they were not behaving in a manner that I would expect.
‘If you look in a cow’s eyes it will normally look away, it won’t stare you out. If it looks away, it will normally disperse. These cows were different.
‘They didn’t demonstrate any intention of being fazed by the presence of two human beings, in fact, they came forward to confront us.’
Mr Barkless said he told his friend he was changing course and turned his back only to hear a ‘tumultuous motion’ as the cattle moved towards Mr Flynn and he started to run away.
The witness said a cow shoulder charged the pensioner, knocking him to the ground, then flipped him up in the air.
He lay injured on the ground and every time he moved after that, a cow would trample him, Mr Barkless said.
He rang 999 from a hawthorn tree and worried if he tried to help his stricken friend, the cows would change over Mr Flynn again.
When Mr Flynn made a final attempt to get up, a cow kicked him in the face, Mr Barkless said. It was only when the air ambulance flew over, some 30 minutes after the first attack, that the cows dispersed in fright, Mr Barkless said, allowing him and other walkers in the area to try to help.
The medics in the air ambulance could not save him and he died at the scene.
Mr Flynn’s elder daughter Julia Proud wrote a pen portrait which said her father loved walking and the countryside.
She said: ‘The tragedy that happened is a bitter pill to swallow as it is something he had done so many times before and enjoyed.’
The coroner was told that one of the issues that they will consider during the five-day inquest was a previous incident involving cows at the farm almost exactly a year before, where two walkers were injured.
The inquest continues.
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Last year, an 88-year-old woman was trampled to death by a cow while she walked her dog.
Pam Barnwell, 88, was on her daily walk with her beloved Jack Russell dog Rosie when she was charged.
She was found lying on the ground with serious injuries and taken to hospital, but she died the next day.
In 2022, a woman was trampled to death by a cow shortly after stopping in the same field to take a picture.
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