A three-year-old boy found dead in his family flat had suffered a “catalogue of injuries”, a murder trial heard yesterday.
A forensic medical officer told Derry Crown Court that when she left the scene, she made it “most definitely clear to a detective sergeant my opinion was this child did not die of natural causes”.
Liam Whoriskey denies murdering Kayden McGuinness at Colmcille Court in the Bogside area of the city between September 16 and 17, 2017.
Dr Amanda Burns told the fifth day of the trial she noted “a catalogue of injuries, some of which may have been contributory to the cause of death”.
The 25-year-old, from Glenabbey Gardens, Derry, also denies two charges of inflicting cruelty on the child and a count of failing to protect the boy.
Dr Burns said she arrived at the scene at 12.15pm and left at 2pm.
She added: “To be quite honest I was quite horrified at some of the scenes in the flat. To me it was almost like a staged scene of neglect indicating a high level of neglect in that household.”
Dr Burns noted injuries to the child’s face including four linear bruises to the right side of the neck, ranging in length from 3cm to 7cm and between 1cm and 1.5cm wide.
She said it was difficult to age the injuries but she believed they’d been sustained between 24 and 72 hours earlier and rigor mortis had set in.
She added: “I believe the child died at some stage during the night but I can’t say if it was midnight or at three in the morning.”
Defence barrister Ciaran Mallon told the court the child’s mother Erin McLaughlin had said her son would, up to 50 times a day, jump off a windowsill or TV stand, injuring himself.
Dr Burns responded a child with behavioural issues such as Kayden could be more active and sustain injuries as a result of their over-activity.
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