Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
TESTIMONY in the coroner's inquest into the death of Pakistan cricket coach, Bob Woolmer, ended yesterday, 26 days after it started at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston. Coroner Patrick Murphy began reading 'key evidence' from the inquest, which has heard from 57 witnesses as well as statements from seven persons.
Murphy told the 11-member jury that they can return one of several verdicts, including murder, manslaughter (voluntary and involuntary), death by natural causes, unlawful killing, suicide, accident or misadventure.
Majority verdict acceptable
He told the jurors that a majority verdict will be accepted by the court.
He said he was sure they were all intelligent persons, and when they considered the evidence, he was sure they would have an independent input. That, he said, was important.
Murphy called an end to testimony shortly after 2:00 p.m. when Const. Devon Brown of the Major Investigation Task Force left the stand. Earlier, Deputy Superintendent Colin Pinnock continued his testimony from the previous day.
Pinnock was part of the team that investigated Woolmer's death. The 58-year-old former England player's nude, motionless body was found by staff in the bathroom of his room at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, on the morning of March 18, one day after Pakistan were knocked out of the Cricket World Cup by unfancied Ireland.
Woolmer was pronounced dead that day at the University Hospital of the West Indies. The coroner's inquest was ordered in March.
The incident shocked the cricket world and put a damper on the tournament. It took a mysterious turn on March 22, when the police announced that government pathologist, Dr. Ere Seshaiah, said Woolmer was murdered.
Dr. Seshaiah, who conducted the post-mortem on March 20, gave the cause of death as asphyxia caused by manual strangulation.
In his testimony at the inquest, Dr. Seshaiah added cypermethrin poisoning to his analysis. He said he saw traces of the pesticide in Woolmer's system from the toxicology report on June 21.
At a press conference in Kingston on June 12, then Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas declared the case closed. He said no foreign substance was detected in Woolmer's body.
Three pathologists - Dr. Nathaniel Cary of Britain, the Canadian Dr. Michael Pollanen and South African Professor Lorna Jean Martin - ruled out foul play in Woolmer's death. They questioned Dr. Seshaiah's autopsy procedure and agreed that Woolmer was not strangled but died from natural causes.
Two analysts from the Government Forensic Science Laboratory in Kingston, said they found cypermethrin in samples taken from Woolmer's body. So did Michael Best, a toxicologist at the Barbados Forensic Centre.
But John Slaughter of the Forensic Science Service in London testified that he found no cypermethrin in a blood sample taken from Woolmer.
An independent test to clear up the difference in results was ordered by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mark Shields. Conducted by professor Tara Dasgupta of the UWI's pesticide research unit on October 26, the tests found no cypermethrin in the samples.
