A burglar who died after a break-in went wrong was found with two pieces of a broken knife embedded in his head.
The pathologist who examined Jordan Brophy, who died in Halewood last year, also said he was found with two separate sets of injuries which both would have separately killed him. Karl Townsend and his half-brother, Jamie Cunningham, are standing trial accused of the murder of Mr Brophy at Liverpool Crown Court.
The pair allegedly armed themselves with knives after being alerted by Ring doorbell to a break-in at Townsend's Halewood home. Prosecutors say they rushed to the address and confronted the intruders. Townsend is said to have stabbed Mr Brophy in the head and arm, before twice knifing him in the face. One stab wound went through his left optic nerve and damaged his temporal lobe.
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Liverpool Crown Court has heard Townsend and Cunningham left the scene, but then returned, when Townsend allegedly stabbed the "defenceless" 31-year-old in his jugular vein "out of revenge or punishment" . Richard Pratt, QC, prosecuting, has said Townsend does not dispute causing Mr Brophy's death but denies murder.
Today, jurors heard evidence from Dr Alison Armour, the pathologist who carried out an autopsy on Mr Brophy after his death on October 29 last year. Dr Armour said both the stab wound which severed Mr Brophy’s optical nerve and the later wound to his jugular vein would have been fatal on their own. However, she said the stab wound to his jugular, alleged to have been carried out by Townsend outside his Beechwood Avenue home, would have killed Mr Brophy more quickly.
Responding to a question from Mr Pratt about the severity of the wound to Mr Brophy’s jugular, which went three quarters of the way through the vein, Dr Armour said: “This causes catastrophic external blood loss or haemorrhaging, catastrophic.”
When asked how quickly such a wound could kill someone, she said: “For a wound of this degree to the jugular, it is very rapid. A minute, perhaps two, if you are being resuscitated. It is very rapid.”
The prosecution allege that the wound to Mr Brophy’s jugular vein occurred on the street outside while the wounds to his head were inflicted earlier. Dr Armour said her assessment supported this, indicating that the wound to the jugular vein was carried out after the knife broke during an earlier stab attack on Mr Brophy.
She said it was extremely rare for her to find pieces of a weapon left inside a wound but that in her examination of the 31-year-old she found two separate fragments of a knife. She said she had never come across such a situation in more than three decades as a pathologist.
Dr Armour added that the wound which severed Mr Brophy’s left optical nerve and caused the knife to break would have required a “severe” level of force to inflict. CCTV footage shows Mr Brophy fleeing from Townsend’s home via a side door saying “I can’t see, I can’t see”.
Dr Armour said this supported the theory that he was stabbed inside the home. She said the damage to the optical nerve meant he would not have been able to see out of one eye and added that damage to his brain, inflicted via the same wound, would have caused cognitive impairment but said he would have still been able to move. In the footage, Mr Brophy can be seen climbing over a fence before fleeing into the street.
Dr Armour said both sets of wounds would have ultimately killed him but that the wound to the jugular did so more quickly. The judge in the case, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Andrew Menary, QC, asked her: “Do I take it that the stab wounds to the head would have been fatal? Dr Armour replied: “Yes sir.” Judge Menary said: And the stab wound to the neck was immediately fatal? Dr Armour replied: “Yes sir.”
The prosecution case concluded today and the defence are set to being their arguments tomorrow. Both Townsend, 32, and Cunningham, 23, of Beechwood Avenue, deny murder and possession of a bladed article.
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