A FORENSIC scientist described to a court yesterday a trail of blood
where a woman was found shot dead.
Mr Alastair Burt, 35, told the High Court in Glasgow that Ms Sally
Cannon, 20, of Kelburn Terrace, Port Glasgow, had been shot in the mouth
and twice in the head.
Mr John Hemphill, 30, her boyfriend, denies shooting her and murdering
her. Mr Hemphill claims alibi.
He further denies being concerned in the supply of heroin and cannabis
resin between August 1992, and April last.
Police Constable Cameron Baillie, 27, told the court he found Mr
Hemphill at a car park with blood on his face, hands and jeans and that
he became emotional and asked: ''What kind of beast would do that?''
The policeman said Mr Hemphill told him he had left Ms Cannon in their
home on Saturday afternoon, April 22. He found her early on the Sunday
morning on the first floor landing.
Constable Baillie said Mr Hemphill told him she had been ''calling at
doors for help''.
Mr Burt told Mrs Fiona Reith, prosecuting, he went to the scene early
on April 23 and found blood on the stairs. There was heavy blood
staining on the carpet in Ms Cannon's ground flat house and a finger
print in a blood stain low down on a wall.
Mr Burt said it was the deceased's fingerprint and had probably
happened when she was scrambling about on the floor after being shot in
the mouth.
The forensic scientist then told of blood staining going all way to
the top flat and then heavier staining when she had come down to the
first floor landing.
Mr Burt said she had probably been ''down'' when she was shot twice on
the head behind the right ear.
He said he later examined a jacket and jeans belonging to the accused
and found stains of blood which could have come from the deceased.
Mr Burt agreed smears of blood could have been caused when the accused
held the dying woman in his arms, but in his opinion droplets on the
jacket and jeans had happened at the time she was shot.
He said: ''You require energy to break up blood.'' And he added the
force of the bullets striking the girl would propel the blood in
droplets.
Asked by Mr Donald Findlay, QC, defending, if all the spots on the
jacket and jeans were caused the same way, Mr Burt replied: ''I could
not tell.''
Mr Findlay suggested that the spots could have come from a last
violent attempt by Ms Cannon to clear her airway and asked: ''Did the
spots result from a gunshot?'' Mr Burt said: ''I could not say for
certain.''
Re-examined by Mrs Reith he said: ''It was likely they were.''
Acting sergeant Ronald Withers, 50, of the police firearms section,
said he was given three bullets after a post-mortem examination on the
woman. He described them as .38 lead bullets and all had been fired from
the same gun.
Mr Withers said the gun used had not been found but in his opinion it
was an Enfield revolver of the type issued during the Second World War.
He said this type of gun was often used in target practice.
The trial continues.
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