AN EXPERT has told how a Chester doorman bled to death after being shot through the heart and stabbed in the neck.
Home Office pathologist Richard Shepherd told a Liverpool Crown Court jury Martin Ithell, 49, had his carotid artery completely severed by a six centimetre wound and his jugular vein partially cut after being stabbed nine times.
In the post-mortem examination a shotgun injury to the chest was also found which was an irregular scalloped-shaped wound about 3.5cm in circumference to the left of the heart which had caused it to collapse.
Mr Shepherd said: “I can see evidence of bleeding from both the shotgun and stab wounds which indicate that they were both significant causes in the bleeding.
“Both have played a part in his death.”
Rachael Horton, 19, of Little Sutton and Scott Davidson, 23, from Frodsham, are both accused of murdering Mr Ithell, of Robinson Croft, Boughton Heath, on March 11, at their home on Hawthorne Road, Frodsham.
The pair deny the charge.
Mr Shepherd also gave evidence about grazing to Mr Ithell’s face, hips and shins which he said could have appeared as a result of Mr Ithell’s body “touching rough surfaces rather than being dragged”.
Forensic firearms expert Philip Rydeard told how an Italian Lincoln double-barrelled shotgun was found snapped in two along with Mr Ithell’s body in the back of his BOW three-door vehicle outside Blacon Police Station in the early hours of Saturday, March 12.
The court heard Mr Ithell had been shot with the gun, which belonged to Scott Davidson’s father, between a range of no less than one metre and no more than two metres.
Proceeding.