Cardy witness questions post-mortem

Lawyers representing serial killer Robert Black in his latest murder trial called a solitary witness as they set out the case for the defence in under two hours.

Expert forensic pathologist Dr Christopher Milroy gave evidence to Armagh Crown Court on his interpretation of post-mortem tests on nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy, raising doubts on whether she was sexually assaulted.

Black, 64, is accused of abducting and murdering the Northern Ireland schoolgirl while on a day-long work trip to the region 30 years ago. The convicted triple child killer, from Scotland, denies the charges.

Yesterday the court was told that the former delivery driver would not be taking the stand in his own defence.

Jennifer was snatched as she cycled to a friend’s house in the quiet Co Antrim village of Ballinderry in August 1981. Her body was found six days later floating in a dam behind a roadside lay-by 15 miles away at Hillsborough, Co Down.

Dr Milroy, addressing the court via videolink from Malaysia, claimed internal marks found on Jennifer’s body were not necessarily proof she was sexually assaulted.

Furthermore, he said the apparent lack of other injuries to her groin area made it less likely that the marks were caused by a sex attack.

“It is significant there was no injury,” he said.

The expert claimed the internal marks could have been caused by natural decomposition processes.

A sexual motive was identified in the three child murders Black was convicted of in 1994 and the Crown contends Jennifer’s murder bears the paedophile’s criminal hallmark.

The trial had previously heard two other pathologists disagree on whether Jennifer had been sexually assaulted or not.

Under cross examination, Crown lawyer Toby Hedworth QC asked the doctor whether it was the case that sexual assaults did not always leave the victims with injuries.

Dr Milroy agreed, adding that it depended on the severity of the abuse.

Black looked on impassively from the dock during the exchanges. Jennifer’s parents Andy and Patricia watched from the public gallery.

The trial has also heard debate on whether a stain found on Jennifer’s underwear was blood or decomposition fluid.

Dr Milroy said the internal marks on Jennifer would not have produced the blood, suggesting the post-mortem fluid theory was viable.

But the expert acknowledged that the autopsy techniques used in 1981 opened the possibility that other injuries, from which blood could have come from, were not detected.

“For the other theory (blood) you have to speculate that there was an injury that was missed because otherwise there is no source of blood from the post-mortem examination,” he explained from a lecture theatre in Kuala Lumpar.