Mystery as part-time farm is worker 'trampled to death by herd of cows'

By Andrew Levy for the Daily Mail
Updated: 19:36 EST, 7 July 2010


A teacher working part-time at a farm has been trampled to death by a herd of cows.

Philip Whiting, 47, was found lying unconscious in a field. Paramedics battled to save him but he died at the scene.

Last night it was unclear what caused the cows to charge at the farm in Fordham, near Ely in Cambridgeshire.

Tragedy: Leechmere Farm, where teacher Philip Whiting was crushed by cattle on Saturday. He died at the scene.

Tragedy: Leechmere Farm, where teacher Philip Whiting was crushed by cattle on Saturday. He died at the scene

Previous cases have often involved herds becoming disturbed by a passer-by or a dog, particularly when they have calves to protect. 

Mr Whiting's widow, Susan, and son Luke, 20, were on holiday in Greece when the accident happened on Saturday.

She said: 'It's such a terrible shock. We still don't really know what happened. Nobody does.

'It happened on our friend's farm. Phil had gone down to bring in the cows. No one ever saw him again, he just never came back.'

A post mortem examination found her husband died from 'multiple traumatic injuries' caused by the hooves of a herd of cattle.

Mr Whiting, of Newmarket, worked as a vocational lecturer teaching agriculture and was working weekends at Leechmere Farm.

Alan Ward, head of the Engineering Academy at Cambridge Regional College, said staff were shocked at his death.

'Philip had worked at the College for two-and-a-half years and was an instructor in the motor vehicle department,' he said. 'He was popular and hard-working and a great member of the team. He will be very much missed.'

Last week a firefighter appeared in court to deny manslaughter after allegedly causing a farmer to be trampled to death by his cows.

Harold Lee's cattle are said to have charged in August 2009 after Julian Lawford, 49, drove his fire engine past the farm in Bridgwater, Somerset, with its sirens on.

Another farmer, John Ward, 67, of Ridgeway, Sheffield, was crushed to death in front of his daughter in April when a cow atttacked him as he put identity tages on calves.


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