Strangled woman ran into 'cul-de-sac'

A young woman attempting to escape her attacker in parkland in County Cork met her death when she ran into an "impenetrably dense" area of vegetation and was overtaken, the state pathologist told a murder trial jury today.

Prof John Harbison was giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court that he carried out an initial examination at the overgrown location in the Regional Park, Ballincollig, Co Cork where the body of Ms Rachel Kiely (22) was found dead.

An 18 year-old Cork man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies the murder and rape of Ms Kiely in the park on October 26, 2000.

"She appeared to have fled into this deep undergrowth... and she couldn't go much further," Prof Harbison said.

"Her efforts to escape ended in a briar-ridden cul-de-sac, there was no escape from someone pursuing her," he added.

Earlier, the jury watched video footage showing a derelict old ruin and surrounding area in the park where the attack occurred.

Prof Harbison told the court that his post-mortem examination showed the victim "died of asphyxia due to manual strangulation, from the squeezing of the larynx by hand".

He said there was "more than one compression to the neck" which resulted in muscle bruising and fracture of the Adam's apple.

"There is ample evidence of violence to this girls neck and, by implication, an intention to kill," he said.

He told Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC for the defence that it was likely that the neck injuries were inflicted at the site where she was found, unless she had been dragged there.

"It seems she tried to escape...the body did not look like a dumped one, but as though it got a bit entangled in vegetation and could not go any further," he said.

He said he was "struck by the small number of external injuries" and while there was evidence of disturbed clothing, there was "no sign of forced sexual injuries".

"I could not prove forcible intercourse, but in excluding it I cannot of course take account of verbal threats and psychological threats, only physical injuries," he told Mr O'Carroll.

Dr Grainne Courtney, a forensic medical examiner at St James's Hospital gave evidence that physical injury is not always inflicted on a victim of sexual assault.

"In trials of sexual assault it is expected that there would be injuries, when in fact that is not usually the case...in the majority of cases you don't find any genital injury at all," she said.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury.