Extreme injuries

When pathologist Dr Corinthia Dupuis performed a postmortem on the body of 18-year-old Kadeem Wilfred, she observed several internal and external injuries.

However, the consultant pathologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital said she determined the teenager died as a result of blunt chest abdominal trauma secondary to injury by motor vehicle.

Dr Dupuis gave that evidence in the No. 2 Supreme Court as the murder trial of Jarviston Glenford Thorne continued before Justice Randall Worrell on Thursday.

Thorne, of Jackson Terrace, St Michael, is accused of murdering Wilfred on December 8, 2015.

Questioned by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale, Dr Dupuis told the court she conducted the postmortem examination on December 11, 2015. She said there were multiple external abrasions on Wilfred’s abdomen, left thigh, below the left knee, the right and left upper back, and an abrasion that stretched from his shoulder to his left forearm.

The pathologist pointed out that Wilfred also had several internal injuries.

He had multiple fractured ribs on the right and left side, injuries to his lungs and heart which included bruising of the lung tissue, and a laceration to the left ventricle.

Additionally, Dr Dupuis said Wilfred’s aorta had been ruptured, “which would have led to massive bleeding”. She said blood was found in his abdomen, there was a laceration of the liver, his spleen had ruptured, there was a fracture of the left kidney and his spinal column had also been fractured.

“In summary, he suffered from extensive haemorrhage, multiple fractures and some tissue injury as a result of being hit by a motor vehicle. So, death in my view was caused by blunt chest abdominal trauma secondary to injury by motor vehicle,” Dr Dupuis said.

Further questioned by Seale, the witness said the injuries were consistent with someone who had been driven over by a motor vehicle.

Under cross-examination by defence counsel Marlon Gordon, Dr Dupuis said she was not in a position to say whether he was struck from far or near.