The moment police realised Josie was alive

A police surgeon has described the moment he realised youngster Josie Russell was still alive.

Dr Michael Parkes told how he found Josie lying at the feet of her mother, Lin, in a country lane.

He said in a statement read to the court that the nine-year-old felt warm and was taken to the casualty department of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

The court heard that both her mother and sister Megan's bodies were heavily bloodstained.

Mr Sweeney said a post-mortem examination concluded that Mrs Russell had suffered a sustained and severe assault about her head.

Megan, who had some of her sister Josie's blood on her body, had suffered about seven blows to her head.

"She had also been subjected to severe, repeated and sustained violence to her head," Mr Sweeney said.

Michael Stone, 41, denies the murder of Lin and Megan and attempting to murder Josie in Cherry Garden Lane, near Chillenden, Kent, on July 9 1996.