Toddler's numerous, horrific injuries detailed to murder trial.
Rather than depicting a happy two-and-a-half-year-old boy at play, as might be expected with pictures of a child his age, the images on display in an Oshawa courtroom Tuesday showed the tot on a slab undergoing an autopsy after his alleged murder in 2010.
“What I found was injuries over a range of healing, ranging from acute …to fairly advanced stages of healing,” Dr. Michael Pollanen, Ontario’s chief forensic pathologist, testified on the fifth day of a murder trial expected to last six weeks.
Pollanen spent two days on the stand detailing Keagan’s many injuries that were healed, in the process of healing, or suffered “minutes to hours” before death, allegedly at the hands of his mom’s live-in boyfriend, Michael Monckton.
The jury was shown graphic images on a huge screen as Crown attorney Paul Murray questioned the pathologist about his post-mortem report.
“We know that there was repetitive injury in the abdomen,” Pollanen said, explaining Keagan had bruises on his stomach and was bleeding internally.
He said “blunt-force trauma” likely caused tears in the child’s abdominal organs as they impacted with his spine.
Pollanen pointed to areas in the boy’s belly where he found “recent” injuries that had started to heal as well as scar tissue from older damage.
The doctor also found many bruises in various stages of healing on Keagan’s head, face and back as well as “recent” bruises and a scab on the youngster’s genitals, which he speculated may have been caused by “pinching” or “twisting.”
But perhaps the most horrific injuries were the numerous broken bones that Pollanen said appeared to have healed without medical treatment.
Keagan’s forearm bones, the ulna and radius, were broken just above the wrist, he said, pointing to X-rays.
Pollanen said it would have taken “significant to substantial force” to cause the break and it likely happened weeks to months prior to his death.
The boy also had fractured ribs and the tiny bones in both ring fingers were broken, which the doctor said also likely occurred weeks to months before he died.
Keagan’s separated parents, Leigh-Ann Cooper and Dan Davis, are not able to attend the proceedings because they may be called to testify.
Cooper, who has since married another man, was dating Monckton for about six months when she left Keagan with him in their Oshawa apartment Jan. 5, 2010.
Monckton, 28, who has two kids with another woman, was arrested soon after. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, aggravated assault and assault causing bodily harm.
The trial resumes Wednesday.
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/10/23/toddlers-numerous-horrific-injuries-detailed-to-murder-trial
A pro-Palestinian ship named Estelle is escorted to Ashdod port in
southern Israel after it was seized by Israeli navy October 20, 2012.
The Israeli navy seized an international pro-Palestinian activist ship
on the Mediterranean high seas on Saturday to prevent it breaching
Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, a military spokeswoman said.
The Estelle was carrying 30 activists from Europe, Canada and Israel,
humanitarian cargo such as cement and goodwill items such as children's
books, a mission spokesman said on Saturday. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
