Pathologist continues Poeschel evidence

Murdered German journalist Bettina Poeschel may have been killed and later dumped and hidden in dense undergrowth, a murder trial jury heard at the Central Criminal court today.

Former state pathologist Professor John Harbison told the court it was his opinion that Ms Poeschel was not murdered at the scene where she was found but that her body had been dumped there afterwards: “It is my hunch that in view of its location, it could have been thrown there.

"It’s possible that someone could have been force-marched in there but the impression to me was the person was dumped there” he told the jury.

He said the location of the body in a dark, densely vegetated copse “was not the place where a young lady would go on invitation. You wouldn’t go for a walk there, it did not seem the place where a young lady would go alone” he said.

“So it did strike me that this was a dumped body, that the murder did not take place there” he told defence counsel Mr Patrick MacEntee SC.

Prof Harbison was giving evidence at the murder trial of Mr Michael Murphy (42) from Drogheda, Co Louth. Mr Murphy has pleaded not guilty to the murder of the 28-year-old woman on a date between 25 September and 17 October 2001 at Donore, Co Meath.

Cross-examined by Mr MacEntee, Prof Harbison said the vegetation looked “undisturbed” and “overgrown”.

“That suggests to me the body had lain there for a week or two. The ivy had grown over the leg” he told the jury.

When asked by prosecuting counsel Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC if Ms Poeschel’s remains could have been there from the day of her disappearance on September 25 to the day she was found on October 17, Prof Harbison replied “in autumn weather, yes”.

The cause of death still remains “unascertained” however. “I was unable to find the cause of death” Prof Harbison told Mr Vaughan Buckley.

“The decomposed state of the organs was such that I could not see any major injury. There was no evidence of head injury, no question of any stabbing in the abdomen.

"It was the absence of the larynx and neck shoulders that meant manual strangulation was a possibility, I could not exclude it” he told the court.

Prof Harbison said he returned to the spot where the body was found the next day to try to find some missing neck vertabrae and the larynx, which could have provided vital evidence of strangulation.

While he found the missing vertabrae, he could not find the larynx and concluded it had been removed by scavenging wildlife. He said the “complete detachment of the skull” from the body was due to disturbance by wildlife also.

In his conclusion, Prof Harbison said death from natural causes “would be most unlikely”.

“She was in good health. The only likely cause of death was from some sort of an assault upon her” he said.

Earlier, forensic expert Detective Garda Thomas Carey described the condition of the body upon discovery as “skeletal” in parts. He pointed out that the victim’s head was “covered with ground vegetation” and “neither was there grass or mud stains on the soles of the feet”.

“I saw that stuck to the skin of the knee was a small button, like a shirt button” he told the jury. He also noticed that “on the right thigh there was a small piece of metal, like the adjustor of the waistband of clothing”.

Under cross-examination by Mr MacEntee, defending, Det Gda Carey admitted it was “significant” that there were no scratches on the soles of the victim ’s feet.

“There were a number of briars around and if the person had walked across these one might expect injuries to the soles of the feet” he said.

Meanwhile another local witness testified to seeing two cars parked near where the body was found the day after Ms Poeschel’s disappearance.

Mr James Leonard told Ms Monica Lawlor for the prosecution, that on the day after her disappearance, he recalled seeing “a jeep and a car parked in front of it and two men talking” as he cycled past.

The following morning around 8 am he saw a “small black car there” with a second man sitting in the passenger seat. “The driver was a thin-faced man with black hair, staring ahead of him,” he said.

Mr Leonard said when he saw the photo in the local paper of the accused, “it reminded me of the man sitting in the driver’s seat of the little black car.”

Ms Poeschel’s sister Cornelia was present in court for this morning’s proceedings but returned to Munich this afternoon with Bettina’s friend Mr Holger Sirtl. Her parents plan to return to Dublin for the last week of the trial.

“it’s important for them, to see this closed” said Mr Sirtl.

The trial continues.