Parents leave court while doctor tells of injuries

Former Kerikeri schoolgirl Liberty Templeman was hit about the head four or five times in an attack that knocked her unconscious but did not kill her, the High Court at Whangarei heard yesterday.

As the trial of the teenage boy accused of murdering the popular 15-year-old entered its second week, the jury was shown photos of injuries inflicted during the November 2008 killing.

Liberty's parents, Andrew and Rebecca Templeman, left the courtroom while pathologist Tim Koelmeyer gave graphic evidence, which left other family supporters visibly distressed.

Dr Koelmeyer spoke of bruising to Liberty's right and left temple areas.

The bruising was worse on the left side and was consistent with an impact from something the size of an adult male's palm, he said.

"This is the kind of bruise one sees after, for instance, something like a punch, a softer blow."

Dr Koelmeyer said he believed Liberty was hit once on each side of the head, once in each eye, and possibly a fifth time on her jaw.

"It is most likely that these blows happened very rapidly."

Defence lawyer Catherine Cull asked if an injury to Liberty's nose and mouth could have come from a fall. Dr Koelmeyer said a fall could not be excluded.

He was also asked if an unconscious person could be mistaken for being dead. "I think it's reasonable to suggest," he responded, "that a person [who is] rather naive in terms of what a dead body looks like could well think that someone who's unconscious is in fact dead."

Bruises on one of Liberty's hands could have come from an offensive punch. "The fact that they're on two knuckles is my suggestion for the offensive punch, so to speak, rather than defensive," Dr Koelmeyer said.

Another bruise on the back of her hand might indicate "that there's some sort of defence".

He also described scratches which he believed proved Liberty had been dragged, most likely by someone holding the clothing on the upper half of her body.

"The distribution of those drag marks ... right from the base of the neck down to the buttocks indicates that the body was dragged back-down, face-up and backwards."

Dr Koelmeyer said Liberty had died from drowning. "She was probably stunned or knocked unconscious at an initial episode and then dragged across to the stream and, in my view, drowned while being taken across the stream to the other side."

In other evidence, a police detective sergeant, whose name is suppressed, said Liberty had been dragged more than 11m down a bank, then down a one-metre drop into the stream.

She was dragged about 3.5m across it to where she was found, the court heard.

The jury was also shown the beginning of a police interview with the accused boy, conducted hours after Liberty's body was found.

The trial, before Justice Raynor Asher, is expected to continue until at least Friday.