Colin Amatto: Killer dog who beat hero to death as he saved mother and her little girl ‘ripped’ flesh from real estate agent in new brutal attack

Warning: This story contains the name and image of a deceased Indigenous person.

A killer dog mauled a real estate agent just 18 months before fatally attacking a man who heroically defended the lives of a woman and child.

Colin Amatto, 40, died after rushing to help a 10-year-old girl and her mother who were bitten by a dog at a western Sydney home on the afternoon of January 24, 2019.

An inquest into his death found the proud Yuin man was ‘savagely mauled’ by a Staffordshire bull terrier called Boof, before another staff called Hope joined in the ‘attack of extreme cruelty’.

He had lived with the dogs for almost a year before the attack and they often slept with him, the court was told.

Mr Amatto suffered more than eighty wounds to his head, body and limbs during the violent and bloody mauling.

He only regained consciousness when his family made the heartbreaking decision to cut off his life support five weeks later.

The 40-year-old’s tragic death is being investigated as part of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding seven fatal dog attacks that occurred between 2019 and 2023.

Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes has been tasked with assessing the effectiveness of local councils and police’s response to fatal dog attacks to prevent further tragedies.

Just 18 months before Mr Amatto was beaten to death in his home, the inquest heard Boof had been seized by authorities for launching a ‘terrifying attack’ on a real estate agent.

Property manager Barry Grant had been visiting the property to speak to the owners – who were not at home – when he was attacked by the ‘very, very ferocious’ staff.

The inquest heard he spent four days in hospital and had to undergo surgery due to serious injuries he suffered to his arms, legs and torso during the ‘terrifying’ attack.

Boof was seized by Penrith Council pet animal officer Danielle Whitley while an investigation into the circumstances of the mauling was carried out by NSW Police.

“The safest thing to do was to seize the dog while the investigation took place,” she said.

However, Ms Whitley told the inquest she was unsure whether she was legally able to seize Boof because companion animal legislation protects a pet’s right to defend itself from intruders.

“I explained (to the police) that if (Mr Grant) committed an offense the council would take no further action against the dog or its owner,” she said.

In circumstances where it was found that a person had illegally entered a property without permission and a dog had defended itself or the property, Ms Whitley said she believed the council had no grounds to seize the animal.

Whether the force of the attack on Mr Grant – whose flesh was described as ‘torn from his body’ – should have been sufficient grounds for seizure is a question to be determined by the inquest.

Ms Whitley’s former supervisor, Penrith Council companion animal officer Amanda Burns, said she shared Ms Whitley’s doubts about whether Boof should have been taken.

‘It’s been confiscated. “Maybe it shouldn’t have been that way,” she said.

Ms Burns said the dog attack was ‘unclear and messy’ as it appeared Mr Grant had entered the back garden of the house when the owners were not home without their permission.

She contacted police and recommended that Boof be released from the pound because he had acted in defense of his property.

Despite the brutality of the attack, the pet officer said she did not think there was any restriction she could have placed on the staff before releasing him.

The dog fatally mauled Mr Amatto less than two years after he was returned to his owners.

The inquest found that police often turned to council pet officers for help with dog attacks.

“Police officers often don’t know how to investigate a dog attack or what steps to take, so they seek our advice,” Ms Whitley said.

“The council (often) investigates dog attacks rather than the police because we have the staff trained to deal with them.”

Ms Burns, who has worked for Penrith Council for more than a decade, estimates she investigates around 75 per cent of dog attacks in the Penrith area.

She said the process of sharing information and making decisions in collaboration with police was often difficult at the time Mr Grant was mauled.

Neither the police nor the council had access to each other’s files on dog attacks, so “it was difficult to understand what everyone was doing,” Ms Burns told the inquest.

The effectiveness of multi-agency decisions and the scope or limitations of legislation should be scrutinized during the investigation.