South Uist teenager Liam Aitchison may not have been killed on the day two Lewis men are alleged to have murdered him, a trial at Glasgow High Court heard today (Fri).
The prosecution believes the teenager was dead by 2am on Wednesday 23 November 2011.
But today pathologist Prof Anthony Busuttil said he believed Liam did not die “when the incident was supposed to have occurred.”
Johnathan Mackinnon and Stefan Millar, both 22 years, deny murdering Liam Aitchison in a derelict house at 17 Steinish outside Stornoway.
It is alleged he was repeatedly hit on the head and body with a knife and bottle and was repeatedly kicked and stamped on his head.
On Thursday, pathologist Dr Rosslyn Rankin told the trial Liam was stabbed 20 times including two fatal blows and would have died rapidly, within minutes.
This week the court was told an initial examination of Liam’s body took place on November 30th the day after he was discovered.
The prosecution maintain he was killed about eight days earlier.
Today Prof Busuttil told Johnathan Mackinnon’s defence lawyer Iain Patterson that the data “put before me” about rigor mortis in Liam’s body meant “it is highly unlikely the period between death and discovery of the body was that long.”
The specialist in forensic medicine believed the 16-
The court was told Prof Busuttil, who was the pathologist overseeing high profile investigations like the Lockerbie disaster and Dunblane killings, is the head of a department dealing with 130 suspicious deaths per year for the last three decades.
Under cross examination by prosecutor Iain McSporran, Prof Busuttil said that measuring
the time of death was not an exact science but “using the circumstances put to me”
about the assessment of rigor mortis and decomposition and factors like the nearby
air temperature and the cold, unheated house, he believed Liam died two or three
days -
Having almost no discolouration on the body after several days “sounds strange”he said.
Even in a cold mortuary there is discolouration after several days, he added.
The professor said the first signs of decomposing was brownish, purplish discolouration on the right lower tummy and, but not to the same extent, on the left side.
Usually this started some 12 to 14 hours after death if the body was in an place at room temperature.
He said he didn’t see discolouration when he saw Liam’s body in Inverness on 2 December.
The professor said the rigor mortis stage and lack of discolouration was “not strong evidence. They help you in the right direction but it is not hard and fast evidence in one way or another.”
He told prosecutor Iain McSporran that there is “no pathologist - nor matter how
eminent, no matter how experienced - can tell you exactly when someone has died.”
He said that given the state of the body and the suggested time sequence the “two aspects are not compatible with normal usual circumstances.”
He said: “Some things are more possible or probable than others. Sometimes we are surprised by exceptions to the general rule.”
In re-examination lawyer Iain Patterson asked: “You found the time gap here strange
and highly unlikely?”
Prof Busuttil replied: “Yes. I still concur with that view after all I have heard in this court today.”
