Coroner calls for further tests on Woolmer's body
Coroner Patrick Murphy has asked for further tests to be carried out on samples taken from Woolmer's body
Cricinfo staff
06-Nov-2007
The inquest into the death of former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer took a twist on
Monday with the coroner, Patrick Murphy, asking for further tests to be carried out
on samples taken from Woolmer's body. Murphy also ordered that the retesting be
completed by November 12, which means that the inquest is likely to continue beyond
the scheduled closing date of November 9.
The directive came on a request from Mark Shields, the Jamaica deputy commissioner
of police, following discrepancies in the toxicology reports by forensic scientists
from the Caribbean and the UK. Shields said more samples would be retrieved from the
UK and the local forensic laboratory.
Woolmer was found unconscious in his room at the Pegasus Hotel in Jamaica on March
18, a day after Pakistan's shock defeat to Ireland in the World Cup. The police had
initially backed the government pathologist Ere Sheshiah's finding that Woolmer was
murdered and released a statement to that effect. However, a review by three other
pathologists - Nathaniel Cary, Michael Pollanen and Lorna Martin - said Woolmer died
of natural causes, possibly due to a heart attack.
As the investigation continued, toxicology tests could not conclude whether Woolmer
was injected with a poison or not. Marcia Dunbar, a Jamaican forensic analyst,
testified at the inquest that evidence of the pesticide cypermethrin was found in
blood and urine samples. Of three samples of blood taken from Woolmer, Dunbar said
one tested positive for cypermethrin while the others did not and no suitable
explanation was given for this. She also said that one of the containers she
received from the police containing the samples had been contaminated.
John Slaughter, a British forensic expert, later told the inquest that said he found no pesticide in the sample which was tested in his lab on May 4. He said the presence of cypermethrin could have been due to contamination at the government forensic laboratory in Kingston.