Medical experts give evidence in manslaughter case

Press, 16 April 1980, Page 5

Medical experts give evidence in manslaughter case

Nelson reporter

All evidence and the final addresses to the jury were completed yesterday in the trial of a young man accused of manslaughter in the High Court, Nelson. This morning. Mr Justice O’Regan will sum up in the trial of Gregory’ Leonard Raumati, aged 23, a concrete worker. He is charged with the manslaughter of Richard Manuhira Tansley. also known as Manu Scia Scia, bv striking him on August 16, 1979. Mr C. J. McGuire is appearing for the Crown, and Mr A. E. Webber for the accused.

A Nelson pathologist, Dr |M. S. Clark, gave detailed evidence of a post-mortem examination which he performed on August 24 on Scia Scia. He considered the cause of death was a combination of severe brain damage associated with a large left sub-dural haematoma and a terminal left lower lobe broncho-pneu-imonia which almost certainly developed as the result of Scia Scia being unconscious from head injuries. ' He said the nature of the ■ head injuries suggested that (the deceased had received a ■ blow on the left side of the ■ head. With subsequent sub-, ■dural haemorrhage formation! this resulted in pressure onj The brain, cerebral oedema,; Ipatchy cerebral softening, and eventually softening in the area of the pons, coning of the brain stem and the formen magnum. A blow on either side of the head could produce these haemorrhages, said witness.

Referring to an old haemorrhage of the right frontal Jobe he said he did not believe this could have had anything to do with Scia! Scia’s death. ■ Under cross examination, j Dr Clark was asked if, haematomas could also be produced by something very minor. He replied that they! could, but he did not feel that the degree of brain damage in this particular case was consistent with minor injury.

, He was also cross-exam-iined on articles relating- to epilepsy and spontaneous sub-dural haematoma and on jthe effects of large amounts ! of liquor over a long period ;and of the association of hypertension and haematomas. i Detective Sergeant G. T. 'Dawson gave evidence of an 'interview which he held I with Raumati on August 17. 'The accused had told him •that after he had been told 'by a man in a hotel that Scia Scia had said he owned (money to Scia Scia and that ihe had to buy groceries he |had gone looking for Scia IScia and eventually he had returned to the bach where he found Scia Scia in bed asleep. Detective Sergeant Dawson said accused had told him he had asked Scia Scia what he had been saying about him and the deceased had denied saying anything about him. The accused had said he had then grabbed Scia Scia, and pulled him out of bed, and threw him on the floor. He punched Scia Scia in the 'face three or four times and |his head hit the wall, said Mr Dawson. I The accused felt that the left hand side of Scia Scia’s head had hit the wall, said ■witness.

I The accused told him that Ihe then opened the outside (door and pushed him outside but a few minutes later he went looking for him and found him walking un the path to the landlord’s house, said witness.

While he was trying to get Scia Scia to return to the house, he crumbled up and fell to the road, the accused hadtold him, Mr Dawson said.

With the help of John I Ransfield, who also lived Jn ■the bach, Scia Scia ' w~as (carried back inside and put jto bed. He appeared to be asleep and was making a snoring sound. He was still jin bed apparently asleep when he left for work at 7.30 the next morning, the accused had told him, said witness.

That night • when he re-

,turned home, Scia Scia was I still in bed, apparently I asleep, and the accused said ■ that he had gone to a hotel and spoken to a friend about Scia Scia. As a result, an inspection of Scia Scia -was made and a doctor was called, the accused told him, Mr Dawson said. Dr A. Sharland, a pathologist, called for the defence, said that an excessive alcohol intake over a period was a predisposing factor to a spontaneous haemorrhage. The same applied to epilepsy. Asked if it was possible for the deceased to have suffered a haemorrhage earlier than the time of the assault, witness said this was so. Edward Ching, a Motueka fisherman, said he knew the deceased and believed him to be an epileptic. He based this on in experience he had had with the deceased eight years previously when he had taken him to Golden Bay. At the Pu Pu Springs the deceased went into the water to get some water cress “and next thing he started shaking all over and just went under.” He had to' be dragged out of the water and “it was 15 minutes before we could get; any sense out of him,” said: witness. I

On the night of August 16 he saw the deceased in a Motueka hotel. He said hei was ordering a drink and 1

heard a bang and looking round he saw Scia Scia on I the floor. When he left the bar a : short time later he was still ■ on the floor. He thought his condition was due to intoxication but he did not approach Scia Scia, said witness. Mr Ching said he had had some experience of epileptics when he was in hospital. Mr McGuire, in his final address, drew the jury’s attention to the evidence of Dr Clark in which he considered that the massive haemorrhage suffered by Scia Scia was consistent with some heavy blows having been struck "to his head. He appeared in good condition before he was punched by the accused, but had lapsed into a coma soon afterwards. It was a confusing case, said Mr Webber, made more so by the disagreement by two medical experts. There were factors other than that of the accused hitting the deceased to be considered, he said. » Evidence had been given of epilepsy and the deceased’s enlarged liver ■ through excessive alcohol (and these could have prei disposed spontaneous haeImorrhage and there was also I the possibility of sponItaneous haemorrhage, he said.