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FORENSIC MEDICINE UNIT
MY
DEPARTMENT OF MORBID ANATOMY
ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL
PETUP_SSO4*++=SPENOZA
H.R.M. JOHNSON
LONDON SE1 7EH
TELEPHONE 01 928 9292
EXT. 2702 2670
7. With regard to the quoted cases mentioned by Dr. Ong I have available for
the Court should it be thought helpful to produce them, references in seven standard text books of forensic medicine which include twelve fully documented cases where multiple self inflicted gunshot wounds were present on a deceased person, in one case as many as nine.
As to the actual method of firing the gun, subject to comment by a ballistics expert, it would appear likely that the deceased was standing at the time the gun was fired, that he held it two handed with the barrel pressed against his chest and fired five shots before collapsing to the ground. Two of these shots lodged in the body having fractured ribs during their passage, one was recovered from the clothing and two exited, one apparently striking the wall by the air conditioning switch and falling to the ground and the other, presumably through exit wound number 2, from the tray of a drawer in the corner of the room where the body was found.
9. There was nothing in the post mortem report of Dr. Wong nor in the pictures taken at the scene te suggest a fight or struggle and there were no defence wounds on the body to indicate that any other person had been involved in the deceased's death.
10.
It is unfortunate that efforts were not made to protect the hands of the deceased from contamination so that they could have been swabbed and further examined for firearm discharge particles and by other chemical tests, and that the fingerprint examination was not more rewarding. These examinations would have established without doubt whether the deceased had fired the gun himself or not.
1
Hugh Robert Molesworth JOHNSON, M.A., M.B., B.Chir., F.R.C.Path., D.M.J., Consultant Pathologist,
Reader in Forensic Medicine,
St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School,
London, SE1 7EH.
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