Murdered woman’s 89 injuries included bite marks – inquest
AYOUNG woman killed in a horrific attack by a recently released prisoner suffered at least 89 individual injuries, including bite marks, an inquest has heard.
Cerys Yemm, 22, died after 34-year-old Matthew Williams cut and struck her face, neck and body in his first-floor room at the Sirhowy Arms Hotel in Argoed, Blackwood, in the early hours of November 6, 2014.
Gwent Coroner’s Court in Newport has previously heard how hotel owner Mandy Miles called police after residents heard screaming from the room and she went to open the door.
Mrs Miles said Williams was dripping in blood and “eating” Miss Yemm, but continued his attack despite being interrupted. She said she has since learned that the “science” has proved that Williams was not performing an act of cannibalism, but that was what it looked like to her.
Home Office-registered pathologist Richard Jones said he carried out the post-mortem examination on Miss Yemm and found 24 separate “areas” of injury which included “at least” 89 separate injuries that he could count.
“Half of which were on the head,” he said. “The injuries were either blunt force bruises or grazes or they were sharp force, which is essentially cutting, or a mixture of the two, and then there were three or four injuries which were a special sort of injury, which is a bite mark.”
Mr Jones said of the “multiple” blunt injuries to the face, those on the left side had a pattern in them that was consistent with an “impact or more than one impact through clothing or a similar fabric-covered surface”.
He said there were injuries to the eyes, nose, ears and mouth, with the injuries to the mouth being the most serious.
“These, in my opinion, were sharp force injuries or cuts,” he said. “Within the mouth and the damaged soft tissue of the cheek were small pieces of what appeared to be crockery or porcelain.”
Mr Jones said the mouth injuries resulted in both of the facial arteries being severed, which would have caused rapid loss of blood and consciousness.
A puncture of the left jugular vein would have contributed to the blood loss, he added.
Mr Jones said Miss Yemm’s cause of death was sharp force trauma to the head and neck, causing external and internal blood loss.
He said he had X-rayed Miss Yemm’s body to look for metal fragments such as the tip of a knife, but did not find any, nor did he find evidence that a screwdriver had been used in the attack, as was reported to police by Mrs Miles.
Barrister Alison Hewitt, who represented the coroner at the inquest, asked Mr Jones if there was any evidence that Williams had been eating Miss Yemm.
Mr Jones confirmed that no parts of her body were missing and said he had “no evidence” of her being eaten.
He agreed that the sharp injuries could have been caused by broken pieces of the cereal bowl found in Williams’ room.
Forensic odontologist Romina Carabott said in a statement, which was read at the hearing, that there were “at least” three definite overlapping bite marks on Miss Yemm’s abdomen and that Williams was the “probable” biter for two of them.
Williams, who was released from HMP Parc in Bridgend two weeks before the incident, was Tasered and arrested by police when they arrived. Shortly afterwards, he stopped breathing and was pronounced dead in an ambulance outside the hotel.
Miss Yemm met Williams, who took controlled drugs and spent much of his life in and out of prison, on a night out after his release, the inquest heard.
They had stayed in touch and spent the afternoon on November 5 together at a friend’s house before returning to Williams’ first-floor room at around midnight.
Forensic scientist Gillian O’Boyle said she examined broken crockery found in the room and was able to piece it together to form an “almost complete cereal bowl”.
She said there was “some damage” to Miss Yemm’s clothing which “might have been caused with a sharp-edged item such as a broken piece of ceramic”.
The inquest heard a brown envelope found on Williams when he was arrested was examined and found to contain quantities of mephedrone, also known as meow meow, and amphetamine, both Class B controlled drugs.
Forensic toxicologist Emma Edwards said there was no evidence Williams had taken mephedrone in the day or two before his death.
She detected amphetamine and cannabis in his blood. The amphetamine was at a concentration of 1.7 milligrams per litre which Ms Edwards said was “at the higher end of the range of abuse”, which could show Williams was an “experienced and tolerant user”.
Ms Edwards said she tested Miss Yemm’s blood and found amphetamine and evidence of cannabis use but no alcohol was present.
The hearing continues.