Experts uncertain how umpire died

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 34

Experts uncertain how umpire died

PA Auckland Whether the Auckland cricket umpire, Mr Peter Plumley-Walker, died during a bondage and discipline session or by drowning at Huka Falls has been put to two leading pathologists. Although both men favoured the Crown’s allegation that Mr PlumleyWalker was alive when he went over the falls and died by drowning neither said he could be certain. Accused of murdering Mr Plumley-Walker and damaging his car are Renee Melanie Chignell, aged 19, a dominatrix, of Remuera, and Neville George Walker, aged 35, a concrete layer, of Panmure. They appeared in a pre-trial hearing before Judge Duncan in the District Court at Auckland. A second theory, mentioned in a coroner’s report written by a Rotorua Hospital pathologist, Dr

David Taylor, was examined in Court on Tuesday. This theory maintains the cricket umpire, strung up by the neck during a bondage and discipline session, died from reflex vagal inhibition (pressure on nerves in the neck causing the heart to slow or stop beating). “It has been put to me that the deceased had been suspended by his neck on tip-toe from the ceiling, suffered difficulties and, in this position, was later found dead. My findings to the coroner would support this scenario,” Dr Taylor said.

“The second scenario was that Mr PlumleyWalker, whilst still living and possibly partly unconscious, was cut down from his bonds and taken to the Taupo (Waikato) River and thrown in.

“My findings were equivocal and could not actively support or rule out

either of the scenarios.” Dr Taylor told the Court. The cause of death was cardiopulmonary congestion, which could have been caused by both drowning and pressure on the nerves in the neck, he said.

A Wellington pathologist, Dr Kenneth Thomson, said river sand in Mr Plumley-Walker’s stomach and lungs suggested he was alive when he went into the river. “In most cases where gravel or sand is present in the airways or in the stomach, it has been actively inhaled or swallowed, implying the victim was alive on entering the water,” he said.

Dr Taylor told the Court he had found gravel in the stomachs of other homicide victims who had been thrown over the Huka Falls.

The pre-trial hearing is expected to end on Friday.