Stab wound force 'at severe end of scale'

A warning that this story contains information which some readers may find distressing.

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The pathologist who conducted the post mortem on a 14-year-old boy who died from stab wounds has been giving evidence at the trial of a juvenile accused of his murder.

Christopher McBurnie, who lived in Castletown, died following an incident in Ramsey last May.

Dr Aaron Borbora, a consultant forensic and Home Office registered pathologist, went into detail about the extent of the injuries suffered by Christopher, outlining four wounds he believed to be inflicted by a knife.

He described two as stab wounds; where the injury is deeper than it is long, one slash wound; where the injury is longer than it is deep, and one superficial injury to Christopher's thumb, which he said was consistent with a defensive injury.

One of the wounds was to the right side of Christopher's chest. Dr Borbora told the court this wound would have posed an immediate threat to life, causing massive blood loss and also causing Christopher to have collapsed and died very rapidly.

Severe force

The pathologist was also quizzed about the force used to inflict the injuries.

He explained that incision wounds can be categorised as either mild, moderate or severe, but that this is quite a subjective scale.

He told the court that the extent of the internal injuries suffered by Christopher did, in his opinion, place the wound to his chest and a separate stab wound to his arm towards the severe end of that scale.

He added that some of the medical interventions to try and save Christopher's life at the scene of the incident did make it difficult to determine the exact extent of some of the knife injuries.

Dr Borbora also paid tribute to those who provided medical attention at the scene, describing the teams involved as "really quite heroic".

The knife

Following the pathology evidence, the trial turned its attention to the searches carried out at the defendant's address in the immediate aftermath of the incident last year, and some of the items seized by the police as a result of those searches.

This included showing jurors photos that revealed a knife was missing from a knife block in the kitchen; following searches at the property a knife was recovered from the defendant's wardrobe.

The jurors got to take a closer look at that knife today, as it was passed around the jury box in an evidence bag for the 12-person panel to examine.

The prosecution explained that a blood stain on the handle had been tested, and it was confirmed the DNA profile from that blood was a match for Christopher McBurnie.

The trial

Jurors will see further exhibits seized from the defendant's home when the trial continues tomorrow.

The 15-year-old defendant, who can't be named for legal reasons due to his age, denies a charge of murder.