The pathologist who examined the body of Zsuzsanna Besenyei after it was recovered from the sea on 16 May last year told a Royal Court jury he found evidence consistent with her body having been face down for a ‘prolonged’ period of time.
Dr Russell Delaney told the jurors in the trial of Jamie Lee Warn he was called in to examine the 37-year-old Hungarian office worker’s remains soon after they were discovered in Le Pulec Bay.
Mr Warn denies murder and two counts of perverting the course of justice.
The doctor told the court that Miss Besenyei was a ‘slim’ woman of 5ft 3in height who largely appeared to be in good health before her death.
His examination found that her body had deteriorated both from being in seawater and the time that had passed since her death.
However, he said that while Miss Besenyei’s body was found facing upwards in the water, the way the blood had pooled in her face, eyes and limbs suggested ‘the body had been face down for a prolonged period of time after death’.
Dr Delaney also said he found bruising to her neck, particularly the ‘strap muscles’ running along the top of the neck around the throat.
When he looked in more detail at the tissue, it appeared to be a bruise caused by ‘pressure applied with focus to that muscle’.
There also appeared to be a ‘pale band’ on the skin around the neck, he said, which may have been caused by her jumper being around her neck while she was in the water.
The jury also heard from a specialist forensic pathologist who looked specifically at Miss Besenyei’s neck injuries for bone and tissue abnormalities.
Dr David Mangham told the court he had found evidence of a fracture to a small bony area in the back of the throat in his examination.
He said the fracture has gone though cartilage and the bony area of the larynx and back through cartilage again.
Dr Mangham said the injury was likely to have occurred two or possibly three days before Miss Besenyei’s death.
Because the bone in question was so small it was difficult to establish a more narrow time range, he said, but the injury was consistent with someone gripping Miss Besenyei at the top area of her neck.
Dr Mangham added that the injury would have caused discomfort and someone with such an injury would be aware of it.
‘Someone would be aware. There was bleeding to the tissues. It would be painful,’ he said.
The court also heard about the discovery of Miss Besenyei’s body by a dog walker.
The man said, in a statement read to the court, he was in the area of Le Pulec with his dog when he noticed something in the water. He could not tell what it was so he pulled out his binoculars.
‘I noticed what looked like jeans,’ the statement said. ‘I moved from where I was standing, as it is a slippery area. That’s when I saw her torso. I could not see a head. It was covered with seaweed.’
The man then called a relative who worked for the Fire Service to report what he had seen.
Watch commander Richard Ryan, who attended the scene, told the court he had helped to move Miss Besenyei’s body into a body bag.
He told the court she seemed to be floating in seaweed and may have been resting on a rock.
He said he had noticed bruising on the right side of her chest and ‘some kind of purplish discolouration on the left’.
The prosecution contend that Mr Warn murdered Miss Besenyei on 10 May of last year, kept her body in the boot of her car for three days and then dumped it at low tide on a beach.
The trial continues.
