Single blow could have caused Michael’s death, pathologist tells trial
BY JAMIE BEATSON A TEENAGER who died after suffering a broken neck and torn spinal cord may have been injured after “tumbling” inside a machine at an industrial cleaning firm, a jury heard yesterday.
Michael McLean was on his last day of a summer job at Denholm MacNamee’s premises in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire.
The 17-year-old was found unconscious and bleeding from the ears on the floor of a paint shed which housed an industrial spooling machine used to raise subsea cables.
Michael died in hospital six days later, on August 14, 2015.
Dean Reynolds is standing trial accused of his culpable homicide.
Yesterday, the High Court in Aberdeen heard that a postmortem examination found that Michael had suffered a broken vertebra in his neck, which caused a tear in his spinal cord.
That led him to go into cardiac arrest, starving his brain of oxygen and causing his death.
Forensic pathologist Dr Matthew Lyall told the sixth day of the trial that a single blow to the head caused during a tumble in the machine could have caused the broken neck and other injuries, including a broken jaw.
He said: “He had a severe injury that could have produced immediate cardiac arrest, and even if it didn’t, I would expect it to produce immediate paralysis of all four limbs.”
Asked by prosecutor Richard Goddard if becoming entrapped or having tumbled in the drum could account for his broken neck and other injuries, Dr Lyall replied: “I think that sequence of events sounds plausible.”
Iain Duguid QC, defending, asked if the pathologist was “amazed” Michael didn’t have “more traumatic head injuries”.
Dr Lyall replied: “It depends how he may have fallen. I probably would most of the time expect more impacts to the head.
“He doesn’t have a traumatic head injury.”
Detective Constable Grant Rigg later told the trial that he had viewed CCTV footage from the Denholm MacNamee yard.
He said only Michael and Reynolds were in the paint shed at the time.
Reynolds, 23, of Keith, Banffshire, denies culpable homicide and breaking the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
He also denies attempting to pervert the course of justice. The trial continues.