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28/06/96 - Poor Sophie looked
like a victim of car smash
Patrick Mulchrone
Daily Record
Little Sophie Hook suffered shocking injuries before she
was strangled, a murder trial heard yesterday.
The seven-year-old's body looked like it had been in
a car crash, according to a pathologist.
And her killer may have strangled her for up to three
minutes before her life ebbed away.
Sophie was snatched from a tent in her uncle's garden
last summer. Her naked body was found washed up on the
shore at Llandudno, North Wales.
Howard Hughes, 31, who is accused of twice raping Sophie
and murdering her, sat calmly in the dock yesterday
as her horrific injuries were described in court.
The unemployed gardener from Colwyn Bay denies all
three charges.
Home Office pathologist Dr Donald Waite examined the
child's body at the scene and later conducted a post-
mortem in hospital.
He said "considerable force" was needed to
inflict many of the injuries, including her right upper
arm which could have been "snapped".
And, as the jury at Chester Crown Court looked at photographs,
he went on to describe a series of bruises, abrasions
and scratches all over the schoolgirl's body .
Dr Waite told Gerard Elias QC, prosecuting, of injuries
to the child's forehead, temple, eyebrow, cheek, tongue,
chin, neck, chest, back, spine, buttocks and ankle.
There was also internal bleeding.
He said: "It is the type of bruising you see in
a road traffic accident with the head striking the windscreen
or a solid part of the car."
He said many bruises and marks were consistent with
the gripping of the child by hand.
And bruising around Sophie's head and face could have
been caused by punching or slapping
Dr Waite told the jury of eight men and four women
that death was caused by asphyxia due to manual strangulation.
A series of bruises and abrasions from her left jawline
across the front of her neck were typical of strangling,
he added.
He was asked how long it would have taken to strangle
her.
He told the court: "It does vary. You can compress
the nerves and get a very rapid death.
"But most accept it takes about three minutes
in order to stop the flow of air to the brain."
And he agreed the other injuries he had described were
inflicted before Sophie was strangled.
Sophie's rape injuries are too shocking to report.
The trial continues. |
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