A pathologist revealed three possibilities which could have led to the death of six-year-old William Yau who went missing for about a week before his body was found floating in Sungai Klang early this year.
Dr Nur Ayutimasery Abdullah of Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah, Klang, said the post-mortem conducted on 25th January 2013 showed that the boy had fractures on his skull, which could have been caused by a strong force applied to his head. But she was unable to determine whether William had died because of drowning or the injuries sustained to the head:
In my view, there are three possibilities. First, a strong force could have been applied to his head and died. Second, he fell into a drain, drowned and died. The fractures on his skull occurred after his death. And third, he fell into a drain, knocked his head and died.
To confirm that he had drowned, there should be changes in his lungs, like it was bloated or there were a lot of tiny bubbles in his respiratory tract.
In this case, none of these were found as the body had decomposed.
When asked by deputy public prosecutor Lee Keng Fatt on the point of impact on William’s head, Dr Nur Ayutimasery said, “Possibly at the back of the head”.
Based on the post-mortem, William had died about a week before his body was found.
Dr Nur Ayutimasery, who is the 12th witness in the coroner’s court conducting the inquest of William, said she had also found a healed fracture on the boy’s right rib as well as on the right shin bone. She said the fractures could have been occurred more than two weeks before the post-mortem.
She, however, ruled out the possibility that William had been abused because usually, an abused victim will have recurrent and multiple injuries. The doctor added that external examination of William’s body showed that there were scratch marks on his calf, which could have been caused by animals with paws like cats or dogs.
On whether there were blood stains on William’s clothes, Dr Nur Ayutimasery, who had conducted post-mortems on more than 600 cases, said she was unsure because the clothes were covered with mud.
Hearing before coroner Mohd Hezril Shaharil continues on 13th May 2013.
(Source)
