undone. Within the bellows pocket on the lower part of the jacket there was a mobile telephone and a pair of bi- focal spectacles. There was a key fob and, perhaps more significantly, a total of three blister packs of a drug called Coproxamol. Each of those packs would originally have contained 10 tablets, a total of 30 potentially available.
Q. And how many tablets were left in those packs?
A. There was one left.
LORD HUTTON: Did you actually take those blister packs out? Did you discover them in the pocket yourself?
A. Yes, as part of the search, my Lord.
Q. Did you notice anything about the face?
A. His face appeared, firstly, rather pale but there was also what looked like vomit running from the right corner of the mouth and also from the left corner of the mouth and streaking the face.
Q. What would that appear to indicate?
A. It suggested that he had tried to vomit whilst he was lying on his back and it had trickled down.
Q. Did you investigate the scene next to the body?
A. Yes.
Q. And what did that show?
A. There was a Barbour flat-type cap with some blood on the lining and the peak near his left shoulder and upper arm. In the region of his left hand lying on the grass there was a black resin strapped wristwatch, a digital watch, which was also bloodstained.
Q. Was the watch face up or face down?
A. It was face down.
Q. What about next to the watch?
A. Lying next to that was a pruning knife or gardener’s knife.
Q. Can you describe what type of pruning knife it was?
A. The make was a Sandvig knife. It was one with a little hook or lip towards the tip of the blade. It is a fairly standard gardener’s type knife.
Q. Were there any bloodstains on that knife?
A. Yes, over both the handle and the blade.
Q. Was there any blood beneath the knife?
A. Yes, there was. There was blood around the area of the knife.
Q. How close to the knife was the blood?
A. It was around the knife and underneath it.
Q. Did you notice a bottle of water?
A. Yes, there was a bottle of Evian water, half a litre.
Q. Was there any water in that bottle?
A. Yes, there was some remaining water. I do not recall what volume exactly.
Q. Can you remember precisely where the bottle was in relation to the bottle? [sic]
A. Yes, it was lying propped against some broken branches to the left and about a foot away from his left elbow.
Q. And did you notice anything in particular about the bottle?
A. Yes, there was some smeared blood over both the bottle itself and the bottle top.
Q. Did that indicate anything to you?
A. It indicated that he had been bleeding whilst at least placing the bottle in its final position. He may already have been bleeding whilst he was drinking from it, but that is less certain.
Q. Was there any other bloodstaining that you noticed in the area?
A. There was. There was an area of bloodstaining to his left side running across the undergrowth and the soil and I estimated it was over an area of 2 to 3 feet in maximum length.
Q. Did you notice any signs of visible injury to the body while you were there?
A. Yes. At the scene I could see that there were at least five what I would call incised wounds or cuts to his left wrist over what is anatomically the front of the wrist, but that is the creased area of the wrist.
Q. Were there any other visible signs of injury to the body?
A. No, there was nothing at the scene.
137. At 7.19 p.m. Dr Hunt ended his examination of the body at the scene where it was found and the body was moved to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where Dr Hunt commenced a post-mortem examination at 9.20 p.m. The examination concluded at 12.15 a.m. on 19 July. In describing what he found on his post-mortem examination Dr Hunt gave (inter alia) the following evidence:
Q. On this further examination, did you find any signs of injury to the body that you have not already mentioned?
A. I did. I was able to note in detail the injuries over his left wrist in particular.
Q. You have made a report, a post-mortem examination report?
A. Yes.
Q. Would you just like to read from the significant parts of that in relation to the injuries you found?
A. Certainly. There was a series of incised wounds, cuts, of varying depth over the front of the left wrist and they extended in total over about 8 by 5 centimetres on the front of the wrist. The largest of the wounds and the deepest lay towards the top end or the elbow end of that complex of injuries and it showed a series of notches and some crushing of its edges. That wound had actually severed an artery on the little finger aspect of the front of the wrist, called the ulnar artery.
The other main artery on the wrist on the thumb aspect was intact. There were a number of other incisions of varying depth and many smaller scratch-like injuries over the wrist. The appearance that they gave was of what are called tentative or hesitation marks, which are commonly seen prior to a deep cut being made into somebody’s skin if they are making the incision themselves.
Q. Did you see any signs of what are called defensive injuries?
A. No, there were no signs of defensive injuries; and by that I mean injuries that occur as a result of somebody trying to parry blows from a weapon or trying to grasp a weapon.
Q. What injuries would you normally expect to see of that type?
A. If somebody is being attacked with a bladed weapon, like a knife, then cuts on the palm of the hand or over the fingers where they are trying to grasp the knife, or cuts or even stabs on the outer part of the arm as they try to parry a blow.
138. In his evidence Dr Hunt stated that he had sent a sample of the stomach contents to a forensic toxicologist, Dr Alexander Allan, and he received a toxicology report back from Dr Allan. He described what this report showed as follows:
Q. In summary what did it show?
A. It showed the presence of two compounds in particular. One of them is a drug called dextropropoxyphene. That is an opiate-type drug, it is a mild painkiller, and that was present at a concentration of one microgram per millilitre in the blood.
Q. Did it show anything, this report, in summary?
A. Yes, it did. It showed the presence of paracetamol.
Q. The concentration of that?
A. 97 milligrams per millilitre.
Q. Where was that present in the body?
A. It was also present in the stomach contents, as well as the blood.
139. With reference to the estimated time of death Dr Hunt’s evidence was as follows:
Q. Were you able to estimate the time of death?
A. Yes, within certain limits, using a particular technique based upon the rectal temperature.
Q. What time of death did you estimate as a result of that?
A. The estimate is that death is likely to have occurred some 18 to 27 hours prior to taking the rectal temperature, and that that time range was somewhere between quarter past 4 on 17th July and quarter past 1 on the morning of the 18th July.
Q. You took the rectal temperature at what time?
