Manslaughter trial hears pathologist evidence

The State Pathologist has told a manslaughter trial that an Estonian man died due to blunt force trauma to his head and neck.

Professor Marie Cassidy told Mr Michael Durrack SC, prosecuting, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, that she carried out a post-mortem on Valeri Ranert on April 30, 2007 having received information from the coroner that the victim had collapsed following an apparent assault at 1.20am that morning.

He arrived at Beaumont Hospital 20 minutes later and was pronounced dead at 2.08 am.

She said that Mr Ranert was assessed as being point three on a coma scale, the lowest reading available, he was not breathing and had no circulation, meaning that he was “for all affects dead on arrival at the hospital”.

She examined his body externally and found multiple bruising, cuts and grazes on his head and neck, including honeycombed patterned bruises which she said suggested that Mr Ranert had received a blow from the heel, sole or tip of a shoe. She found three such bruises on the victim’s forehead and scalp.

Prof Cassidy said that dying “literally within minutes” of a head injury is very uncommon and one possible cause of Mr Ranert's death could be due to small individual filaments in his brain snapping due to the brain being rapidly moved backwards and forwards.

She told the jury that if this happened the nerve sitting outside the brain would then be cut off to it, causing an instantaneous shutting off of the brain.

She said, however, if someone dies so quickly neither looking at the brain or examining it under the microscope would indicate that the filaments had snapped in this manner.

Prof Cassidy said this cause of death is consistent with multiple kicks or blows to the head.

She said the victim had bleeding on the surface of his brain and some hemorrhaging within it. She said there was no evidence that Mr Ranert had been suffering from a preexisting condition which would have made him vulnerable. He had no fractures in his skull or to his facial bones.

Prof Cassidy told Mr Durrack that Mr Ranert had no defence type injuries which suggested that he did not react to the kicks or blows he received that night.

Paul Gibbons (aged 27), of Moatview Drive, Priorswood, has pleaded not guilty to unlawfully killing Mr Ranert (27) at Naul Road, Swords on April 30, 2007. He has also pleaded not guilty to unlawfully seizing by force the Golf belonging to Mr Ranert on the same occasion.

Mr Gibbons is alleged to be the driver of car that arrived at the layby near Dublin Airport.

Mr Durack had earlier told the jury that it is not the State’s case that Mr Gibbons had gotten out of the car or that he was involved in the assault but that this was a “joint enterprise” in which a number of people were “in it to do the same thing together".

Prof Cassidy described Mr Ranert as being of a muscular build and about 5 foot 11 inches in height. She said there were obvious signs on his body of medical treatment.

His eyelids were swollen and there were also injuries on his cheekbones, nose, mouth and Adam's apple. There were very few marks on his trunk or limbs.

Prof Cassidy also found injuries caused by small glass fragments on Mr Ranert’s earlobe, hands, elbows and forearms, which she said could have been caused when the windows were smashed in the car or when he was dragged to the ground.

He had blood stained fluid in his airways and an examination of both his chest and abdomen showed that he had been healthy. There were no traces of either alcohol or drugs in his system.

Mr Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, told Prof Cassidy that none of her findings were challenged by the defence and are accepted in their entirety.

She accepted that the blows Mr Ranert received were both forceful and ferocious and seemed to have been directed and both his head and neck.

She agreed that she had told a Central Criminal Court jury during the trial of Ian Daly, that Mr Ranert’s rapid death was very unusual and that it normally takes time for the damage caused to the brain to manifest, sometimes hours or even days.

Prof Cassidy further accepted that she had told that trial that the first kick Mr Ranert received to his head while he was still sitting in his car could have caused his death but said she could not ultimately identify which blow was the most significant.

The trial continues before Judge Tony Hunt and a jury of six men and six women.