by Abi Silver
‘That’s a fair summary of my evidence, yes.’
‘Thank you. No further questions.’
‘Dr Lewis. Can you tell the members of the jury what qualifications you hold please?’ Judith showed her teeth in the breadth of her smile.
‘Yes, certainly. I am MBBChir (that’s my medical and surgery degree), I have an MA, then MRCP (that’s membership of the Royal College of Physicians), MD, DMJ, FFFLM (that is the faculty of forensic and legal medicine), MCB, FFSoc, FRC (Path) which is my fellowship of the Royal College of Pathology.’
‘And how many years have you been a pathologist?’
‘Twenty-one.’
‘And in how many cases have you appeared as an expert?’
‘Too numerous to count. Because I’m a home office pathologist, I’ve been in court at least once a week almost every week for the last eighteen years.’
Chambers frowned. He was confused as to why Judith would want to celebrate Dr Lewis’ qualifications.
‘Very impressive credentials. I imagine that’s more than anyone else in this courtroom bar his honour. Your evidence in your report is that there were no marks on Mrs Hennessy’s body other than those from impact.’
‘Yes, but I need to qualify that statement, as I did in my report. Mrs Hennessy’s head injury was very significant, the skull was smashed and she suffered broken ribs. My view is that the damage to her head and brain and the bruising on her abdomen was caused on landing, but I can’t absolutely rule out the small possibility of Mrs Hennessy having sustained either a head injury or a chest injury before she fell.’
‘Because the injuries caused by the fall were so substantial, you mean?’
‘Yes, they would mask anything less severe suffered before the fall.’
‘But there is no specific evidence of Mrs Hennessy having been injured before she fell?’
‘No. So there was no blood in her room, on the railing or in the corridor and there was no implement recovered at the scene which might have been used to inflict any injuries on her.’
‘Which is why you feel confident in your analysis that her death was caused by the impact from the fall?’
‘As confident as I can be, yes.’
‘You have mentioned in your report that her limbs were largely intact?’
‘Yes. I was initially surprised, but after further consideration I believe that was because of the softness of the ground she fell upon – earth and leaves – although she had some very light marks on her left forearm. Very tiny, reminiscent of fingertip pressure.’
‘All right. We’ll come on to those later. Isn’t the absence of more substantial evidence of force on Mrs Hennessy’s limbs rather strange?’
‘Well, how strange?’
‘If my client had, for example, manhandled Mrs Hennessy, dragged her along the corridor, or carried her roughly, would this have been reflected somehow on her limbs? Might there have been more significant marks around her arms?’
Dr Lewis paused.
‘I am merely commenting on the cause of death but, to assist the court, if a violent struggle of some kind had taken place between your client and Mrs Hennessy then I would have expected more and different marks on her arms, yes.’
‘Heavier marks than the ones you have noted?’
‘Yes.’
‘What kind of heavier marks?’
‘Bruising on her arms, as you say, from Mr Qabbani’s fingers, if he had, indeed, dragged her or carried her, consistent with a hand being closed around the arm or the wrist. But that may not have happened. She might have gone with your client willingly.’
‘If she did not, so if Mrs Hennessy were trying to resist my client leading her along the corridor in some way, would you be surprised to see no further marks on her limbs?’
‘If you put it that way, yes. The absence of marks on Mrs Hennessy’s limbs, of any evidence of bruising, apart from the very tiny spots I identified, is inconsistent with Mrs Hennessy being forced against her will to accompany your client down the corridor. But if you read later on in my report – I believe it’s page twenty-one – I mention, like I said, those faint marks on Mrs Hennessy’s left forearm.’
Chambers grinned smugly. Judith had almost escaped earlier, but with her persistence now, she had fallen right into that one.
‘All right. Tell me about those marks,’ Judith said.
‘They are faint and, as I explained in my report, they would be consistent with someone facing Mrs Hennessy and pushing her with his or her right hand, but not with great force.’
‘That’s very interesting. Perhaps if your honour would permit, I could ask my instructing solicitor, Miss Lamb, to approach you and you could demonstrate.’
‘Certainly.’
Constance rose slowly and her hand went immediately to her hair. Judith had warned her of this line of cross-examination and her potential role but, even so, she felt the heat of the attention of so many people. She saved her document on her laptop, half-closed it and stepped out from behind the low table. She walked up to Dr Lewis, who descended from the witness box. First, he gripped Constance around her wrists and then moved his hands to her arms just above the elbow.
‘There were no marks consistent with Mrs Hennessy being held like this or like this. And if she had been held around the waist like so,’ – thankfully, he simply made as if to circle Constance’s waist with his arms – ‘then I would have expected some bruising to the waist. But there were the prints of three fingers here, on Mrs Hennessy’s forearm.’ He pressed the fingers of his right hand up against Constance’s left arm, near the top. ‘If Mrs Hennessy had been facing your client, those might have been sustained from pressure. A push for example.’
‘Dr Lewis, is it correct that older people bruise more easily than younger people?’
‘On the whole, yes. Older skin is thinner and has less collagen, which keeps skin supple. And the blood vessels of older people tend to be weaker, so a bump can lead to it leaking out into surrounding tissue. That’s what causes a bruise.’
‘I see,’ Judith murmured sagely, pretending that Dr Lewis was educating her, too. ‘And what kind of pressure might have left this sort of light, faint mark?’
‘I accept that a very small amount of pressure could have caused this level of bruising in a person of Mrs Hennessy’s age. The marks were very faint.’
‘Dr Lewis, do you know how blood pressure is routinely measured?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘Dr Wolf testified earlier that Mrs Hennessy’s blood pressure was taken a number of times during her stay. She was right-handed. Her notes record that her left arm was used for the tests.’
‘Yes.’
‘Can I hand up a blood pressure kit, please your honour? And Miss Lamb, please can you remain there for a moment?’
Constance’s mouth was set fast.
‘Dr Lewis, can you wrap the rubber tourniquet around Miss Lamb’s arm, please? Slowly. There’s no need to inflate it.’
Dr Lewis shrugged. He understood already where this was leading.
‘Now, as you place the cuff on Miss Lamb’s arm, do you apply pressure?’
‘Yes.’
‘With your fingers, around the place where you saw the marks on Mrs Hennessy’s arm?’
‘Yes.’
‘Would you say, given Mrs Hennessy’s age and the condition of her skin, that those faint marks you mentioned could have been caused by any one of her blood pressure tests, rather than by someone pushing her over the fire escape?’
‘I have to accept that’s possible, yes.’
‘Thank you. Miss Lamb. I don’t need your assistance any further.’
Constance shuffled back to her seat, unwrapping the rubberised sleeve as she went.
‘Dr Lewis. My learned friend asked you about time of death and you talked abou
t other “corroborating factors” assisting you, rather than things you can measure, like body temperature. Can you explain what you mean by that?’
‘Yes, simple things really. I had given a very provisional earliest time of death as 7pm. But Dr Wolf, I understand, said he visited Mrs Hennessy around seven. So clearly she was still alive then.’
‘I see.’
‘Also fingerprint evidence. Mrs Hennessy’s fingerprints were found in one place only, on the eleventh-floor railing. Now you would expect fingerprints to be washed away by rain. It had rained that day in the afternoon and the railing might well have stayed wet until around six or 7pm. So, again, that gives us an indication that she was there after 7pm. We can’t be certain but it’s likely.’
‘What about this theory you propound in your report about the position of Mrs Hennessy’s body being evidence of what happened before she fell? You helpfully cited the research you used in your bibliography.’
‘Mrs Hennessy was found 8.5 metres from the foot of the building. Research has been undertaken in Japan – I cited the paper in my report – which lends support for the fact that the distance and position of the body reveals a lot about whether a person fell or jumped. Based on the Japanese research, Mrs Hennessy definitely didn’t jump from the railings.’
‘And why is that?’
‘As I told Mr Chambers, when most people jump, their bodies are carried forwards, away from the building. A jump from this height would have most likely left her body at twelve to thirteen metres away.’
‘Can you show us with your hand, please, how high the railing is on that eleventh floor?’
‘Yes, up to around here.’ Dr Lewis indicated a height around mid-thigh.
‘That is a fairly low railing, wouldn’t you say?’
‘Yes, for that height off the ground, but I have seen similar in other large buildings.’
‘Sort of fingertip height?’
‘Yes.’
‘Now, let’s leave to one side for now the possibility of Mrs Hennessy having climbed up onto the top of that low railing and leaped off, which, you say, would have left her body, probably twelve or thirteen metres away.’
‘Yes.’
‘And she had had the surgery on her foot, of course. If, instead, she stood behind the railing and allowed herself to fall forwards, then, do you accept that 8.5 metres would be within the range of where she would fall?’
‘Yes. I accept that I can’t distinguish from the position of the body whether she was pushed over the railing or fell over herself, but, like I said, I am almost certain she did not stand up on the railing and actively jump.’
‘Thank you. And you also said that a person falling backwards,’ – at this point Judith turned her back on Dr Lewis and leaned back over her lectern – ‘like so, tries to counter the fall and so ends up closer. You estimated six to seven metres I think.’
‘Yes.’
‘Were the people who carried out this research professors?’
‘No. They were research students, but they already had undergraduate qualifications and they were following on from other research by more senior professors.’
‘But it’s fair to say that they, themselves, were inexperienced?’
‘Yes. Although the description they give of the way they set up their experiments is sound.’
‘Hmm. How many subjects did they use?’
‘Ten.’
‘Men and women?’
‘Yes.’
‘And the research involved those subjects either jumping, falling or being pushed off a building which was nearly four metres high, I read. That’s around thirteen feet. And then they extrapolated those results to make assumptions about higher buildings?’
‘Yes. They filmed the subjects falling so they could make projections about the trajectory.’
‘And the subjects were recorded jumping with one and two feet, falling and being pushed forwards and backwards in different ways?’
‘Yes.’
‘How old were the subjects?’
‘They were all aged between nineteen and twenty-two.’
‘Ah. The eagerness of the young. Even so, I understand some of them refused to undertake some of the exercises.’
‘Yes that’s right.’
‘Why was that?’
‘They were frightened.’
‘Understandably so. But, Dr Lewis, this is all very interesting as an academic exercise, but you have so many other factors to consider, don’t you? Height, weight, the prevailing wind – and fear, as you just accepted? Are you telling us that in your expert view, many qualifications, twenty-one years of experience, hundreds of court appearances, based on one survey conducted in Japan, by students, on ten young adults, Mrs Hennessy could not possibly have jumped?’
Dr Lewis paused. He had a fantastic reputation, and it probably wasn’t worth jeopardising it over this interesting, but largely unaccepted, academic paper. Citing the paper alone would, in any event, give it credence.
‘No. I wouldn’t go as far as that,’ he replied, ‘but I would say highly unlikely.’
‘Highly unlikely – so, ninety-ten, eighty-twenty?’
Dr Lewis paused again. ‘I’d say more like seventy-five percent.’
‘Thank you. And is it your expert view, also, that Mrs Hennessy could not possibly have slipped and fallen?’
‘No. That I can’t say with any certainty. A person falling by accident is more likely, as I said, to try to stop themselves, to resist. In Mrs Hennessy’s case if she had overbalanced backwards I would have expected her to be one to two metres closer to the building. But if she had fallen forwards, the position would have been much the same.’
‘Thank you. The fingerprints you mentioned – you said only one set of prints on the railing. That’s odd, isn’t it? If there had been a prolonged struggle on that stairwell, wouldn’t you have expected more fingerprints of Mrs Hennessy, gripping on in different places, clinging on for dear life?’
‘If there had been a prolonged struggle, there might have been more prints, but we don’t know how long any struggle lasted. And I said that the railings had been wet. They were dry when we took the fingerprints but that was ten hours later.’
‘So, you found one set of prints, which establishes that Mrs Hennessy was there, but more prints might have been obscured or washed away, so there’s really no way of knowing now?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you find any prints belonging to Mr Qabbani on the railings?’
‘No.’
‘On the door handle leading out onto the fire escape?’
‘No.’
‘On the door frame or any part of the door leading out onto the fire escape?’
‘Yes, his fingerprints were on the panel of the door in various places.’
‘As if he had pushed the door open with his hand, rather than turning the handle?’
‘Yes. But they were on top of the prints of other people, indicating he had used the door more recently than others.’
‘Were attempts made to identify the prints of these other people?’
‘I don’t know. You would have to ask the police.’
‘The DNA evidence. One hair only from my client’s head was attached to a button at the front of Mrs Hennessy’s nightgown. Is that correct?’
‘Yes.’
‘Now you told Mr Chambers it could not simply have fallen there from a distance?’
‘I am not sure what you mean.’
‘If you and I are having a conversation and we are standing close together, would you expect a hair from my head to become attached to your clothing, without us interacting in any way?’
‘No, that is unlikely.’
‘Thank you. Why do you think that?’
‘Well, buttons are generally not very exposed. I
f a hair were to fall from Mr Qabbani’s head I would expect it simply to fall to the ground.’
‘Quite. And if there was a tussle of some kind? Both parties moving around, pushing, shoving?’
‘Again, it would not be impossible for the hair to have found itself on Mrs Hennessy’s nightgown but it is very unlikely.’
‘This very unlikely; seventy-five percent again?’
‘No, in this case more like your ninety-ten.’
‘That’s clear. In your expert opinion – twenty-one years, eighteen years of expert testimony, week in week out, all those impressive letters after your name – how might the hair have ended up attached to Mrs Hennessy’s nightgown?’
‘Well, this is certainly opinion rather than fact.’
‘Yes, we all understand that.’
Dr Lewis allowed himself a peek across at Mr Chambers before he answered.
‘Mrs Hennessy could have dislodged a hair from Mr Qabbani’s head, for example, by gripping onto him, onto the back of his head or neck or onto his shoulder. Then, if shortly afterwards, she touched the buttons on her own nightgown, for example to open them or close them, she might have transferred the hair to the buttons.’
‘So if Mr Qabbani had helped her to the bathroom, for example, and she had then taken a shower?’
‘It’s feasible, yes. I’m not saying that’s what happened.’
‘If there had been some kind of struggle between the two of them, as the prosecution alleges – although we have already heard that, despite her age it was not sufficient to leave any marks on her arms or legs – if there had been some kind of violent struggle, is it your view that any stray hairs from his head would most likely have fallen to the ground?’
‘That’s my view, yes.’
Chambers’ mouth was open. For a moment he wanted to ask Dr Lewis in court if he was serious in his evidence, given the journey he had embarked upon from the starting point of his expert report. Instead, he composed himself.
‘Your honour. We are now approaching the lunchtime break,’ he mumbled half-sitting, half-standing. ‘I should like a few moments to consult with my instructing solicitor. Would it be possible for us to adjourn now but ask Dr Lewis to be on hand to return after the break if necessary?’
