Celine Cawley’s injuries ‘not consistent with falls’

THE Eamonn Lillis murder trial has heard that two of three fatal head injuries suffered by his wife, Celine Cawley, were not consistent with falls to the ground.

Members of Ms Cawley’s family wept in the crowded courtroom as deputy state pathologist Dr Michael Curtis suggested the absence of brain injury to the dead woman meant her life could have been saved if she had received prompt medical attention.

Dr Curtis told the Central Criminal Court yesterday that the 46-year-old company director had died mainly due to three blows to the head which were the result of blunt force trauma as well as suffocation caused by the position in which her body was lying on the ground. He claimed contributory factors were obesity and Ms Cawley’s enlarged heart.