Rhys Jones trial: Gunshot wound ‘was unusual’

Oct 17 2008 by Chloe Griffiths, Liverpool Daily Post

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A HOME office pathologist told the court he had never before seen the type of gunshot wound which killed Rhys Jones.

Dr Christopher Johnson carried out the post-mortem on Rhys, the day after Rhys was killed.

Using graphics to demonstrate the type of wounds, rather than show the actual medical photographs, he explained 4ft 9in Rhys had an injury to the right side of his lower neck at the front.

He said it was of “unusual appearance” and “looking at it in isolation, you couldn’t be sure it was from a gunshot wound”, although it did have some of the hallmarks.

On the left of the schoolboy’s back, a second wound was “irregular”, Dr Johnson told the jury.

He said this was definitely a gunshot wound and matched a hole in the blue football shirt Rhys was wearing.

His first conclusion was the smaller wound on the front of Rhys’s neck was the entry wound.

But, after viewing the CCTV of the schoolboy being shot, showing him turning at the last second, and test fires from the gun allegedly used, he said the larger hole on the back of the neck was definitely where the bullet had struck.