Beverley suffocation theory

Jan 29 2008 by Liz Keen, South Wales Echo

BEVERLEY Parkhouse was probably suffocated with the duvet or pillow from her bed, a pathologist told jurors.

Although the bed was burned and the room covered in soot, there were no more signs of smoke in her blood than you would find in any cigarette-user – because the fire had been started after her death, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Showing the jury pictures of the care home worker – found dead by her elderly father in September 2006 and alleged to have been killed by a lover she let into the house – Dr Derek James pointed out that her face was dark in colour.

“But that’s not soot, it is congestion which can be caused when pressure is applied and the blood is prevented from getting back to the heart,” he said.

Mr James, a forensic pathologist, was called in by South Wales Police to perform a second post-mortem a week after Mrs Parkhouse’s elderly father found her dead in his house at Cardiff Road, Ogmore Vale, and following an initial belief that the blaze had killed her. The murder trial, in which local man Roystan Moore, 52, of Nantymoel Row, claims to have been having an affair with the married mum of one but denies being her killer, has heard how Ken Palmer, 76, failed to notice the burnt bedclothes as he tried desperately to give his only daughter the kiss of life.

The prosecution allege her killer lit the fire to hide murder evidence.

Mrs Parkhouse, 45, had spent every Sunday night with her dad since her mother died suddenly six months before. Her husband of 27 years, motorway engineer Andre Parkhouse, said he had no idea she was being unfaithful.

Mr James’ tests revealed pinpoint haemorrhages in her eyes, face and upper chest, consistent with pressure, but there were no marks either of manual strangulation or of something like a rope being put around her neck.

He said she could have been put in an arm-lock, with the crook of an arm around the front of her neck, or could have had something soft pushed into her face. There were no defence injuries on her hands or broken finger nails showing she had fought off an attacker and her arms may have been fixed underneath her as she died.

“She could have been face down and pressed into the pillow or duvet, with somebody lying or sitting on her, which would leave to marks at all,” Dr James said.

(proceeding)