A former banker, who allegedly died from her husband’s brutal knife attack, received 76 stab wounds, a court heard on Monday.
A consultant pathologist, John Obafunwa, stunned an Ikeja High Court, where the case has been running for months, when he disclosed that he examined 76 stab wounds on Titilayo Arowolo’s body.
Mr. Arowolo, her husband, was charged to court for allegedly stabbing his wife to death on June 24, 2011, at their 8, Akindeinde Street, Isolo, Lagos, residence. He has denied the charge.
Mr. Obafunwa, who is the Chief Medical Examiner of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, said external and internal examination of the body during autopsy showed multiple stab wounds and incised wounds on Mrs. Arowolo’s chest, arm, abdomen and other parts of the body.
“The wounds affected the left eye, right eye, upper chest area, right chest and collar bone, left armpit and a 10 x 5 cm rectangular area which had multiple individual injuries on the left side of her chest and breast over-laying the heart,” the pathologist said.
Mr. Obafunwa was led in evidence by Olabisi Ogungbesan, the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution.
He said the autopsy, carried out on July 6, 2011, showed the attacker used “tremendous force” and denied the husband’s claim that the wounds on the victim were self inflicted.
“All the injuries couldn’t have been self inflicted because such would have caused so much damage that at a point the deceased would have dropped the knife,” he said.
He said the amount of force was evident on the damages caused on the internal organs.
“After removing the affected internal organs, I observed defects in the chest cavity, which shows the extent of the penetration from the front of the chest towards the back,” he said.
The pathologist, who made a slide presentation of the wounds to the court, said the various wounds were consistent with wounds inflicted with a sharp weapon with single-edged blade.
He identified an alleged weapon already admitted by the court as exhibit, which he confirmed was consistent with some of the wounds on the body of the deceased.
Examinations on the alleged attacker two weeks after the crime, showed “healing injuries” on Mr. Arowolo’s hand and abdomen, the pathologist said, adding that the wounds were “superficial.”
“The 12 injuries I examined were not penetrating but superficial,” he said. “Two of them might fall into the category of defence wounds, though not all the injuries fall into the time frame the incident was said to have occurred as they might have been on the body earlier,” he said.
The case continues on October 22.
Premium Times.