THE mother of a nine year old boy mauled to death by a powerful seven stone dog in a caravan, today broke down as she apologised for her 'selfish actions’, writes Nick Irving.

Tawnee Willis told a coroner that she wanted to apologise to the rest of Frankie MacRitchie’s family and everyone else involved in the horrific incident.

Willis, now 31, wept: "I am truly, truly sorry. I miss him every day and I know they do.

"I know their heart breaks, mine does too. I know nothing I can do will change what happened.

"I’m sorry my selfish actions have caused them so much heartache.

"From the bottom of my heart I wish they can find some closure and find some peace."

Willis said she had checked on her son four or five times that night in the caravan as she socialised with a group of adults in a neighbouring caravan.

She said they were drinking, playing cards and listening to music in the early hours of April 2019 - but she told the senior Cornwall coroner that she made regular checks of Frankie who was playing in his PlayStation in the caravan alone.

A Crown Court judge heard Willis drank and took cocaine during the party in the neighbouring caravan that night. And a police officer at the scene said Willis was under the influence of 'alcohol or drugs’ in the hours after the incident.

Giving evidence to the coroner, Willis said at 1am Frankie wanted some pizza because he was hungry but his mum said she was not going to cook at that time of night and gave him some Mars bars.

She went in at 2am to give Frankie his medication and told the Truro inquest "I was back and forth."

She said on her last check the 45kilo American bull dog cross Staffy bull terrier followed her to her caravan - and she checked with the dog’s owner and her friend Sadie Totterdell, 29, if the dog called Winston was alright to be there.

Willis said: "I checked Frankie four or five times. The last time the dog followed me in. Frankie asked me if the dog could stay. I asked Sadie and she said 'Take Winnie, Winnie loves kids’. I just did not think anything of it and I just left them."

She said she left them together for 'about an hour’ before she went back and discovered ’the most dreadful sight’.

She said Frankie was on the floor but the dog was on the sofa saying: "He just sat there looking at me".

She said she just started screaming as she crouched over Frankie and did not see the dog leave the caravan at the Tencreek holiday park in west Looe, Cornwall.

Willis, from Plymouth, Devon, said there had never been any issues with the dog and Frankie and was unaware of any previous attacks by Winston.

The inquest heard that other holidaymakers went to Frankie’s aid after waking and hearing the screams at 4am.

Willis told Colin Smith and mum Sarah Thompson who went to his aid separately: "I just want to say thank you for helping me that night. I’m sorry that I put you in that situation and you had to witness that."

The coroner also praised them for their efforts at a 'truly horrific scene’ and Frankie’s family said Mrs Thomspon was ’an angel’.

Frankie’s grandmother Pauline Elford said she looked like an angel adding: "Being a mum yourself I can imagine how this has affected you. We can only say thank you from the bottom of our hearts."

Willis was jailed for two years after admitting child neglect at Truro Crown Court in June 2020.

Sadie Totterdell, the dog’s owner, was jailed for three years after she admitted being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury resulting in death. She was banned from keeping dogs for ten years.

Winston was later seized and destroyed.