A young woman died within minutes of suffering “unsurvivable” injuries to her neck, a jury heard yesterday.
Three deep, overlapping cuts just below Annalise Johnstone’s chin, extending to both ears, severed the main arteries and veins and caused “extensive bleeding”.
Annalise’s brother Jordan Johnstone, 25, and his girlfriend Angela Newlands, 28, deny murdering her at the Maggie Well’s witch’s monument near Dunning, Perthshire , last May.
Pathologist Dr David Sadler, 55, a senior lecturer in forensic medicine at Dundee University, carried out a post-mortem on the 23-year-old’s body after hillwalkers found it dumped behind a wall beside the B8062.
He told the High Court in Livingston that the injury to Annalise’s neck suggested “repetitive
movement of a sharp-edged instrument in this region”.
Asked by prosecutor Alex Prentice if she could have survived, he replied: “No. Generally speaking, with an injury of this type, I would expect death to occur within a few minutes.”
The trial continues.
