Blood splatter evidence

Forensics expert takes stand in fatal crash trial

A FORENSIC officer who investigated blood splatter patterns in the car involved in a fatal crash that killed two Ingham women has told a court she believed the blood on the driver’s window could not have come from a person in the passenger side.

The comments were made by Senior Sergeant Kate Taylor, a forensic services coordinator with the Queensland Police Service, on the third day of the trial of Kenisha Leighmay Illin.

Senior Sergeant Taylor said she investigated the Mondeo some time after the crash which killed Ingham women Judy Reardon and Barbara Scott on the Bruce Highway at Bambaroo, in September 2019.

The Mondeo is alleged to have been driven by Illin at the time of the crash.

Illin’s father was also in the Mondeo at the time of the crash – with the court hearing from multiple witnesses they heard Illin shouting that her “dada” had been driving. Two witnesses on the first day of the trial gave evidence they had seen Illin driving the Mondeo on the highway before the crash.

Crown prosecutor Monique Sheppard asked Senior Sergeant Taylor what the likelihood would be that the stains on the driver’s window had come from a person on the passenger side.

Blood stains were also found on both airbags, and a drop on the roof of the car above the driver’s seat, with witnesses and video evidence tendered showing Illin with dried blood on her nose.

Senior Sergeant Taylor said it would be unlikely due to the void created by the driver’s seat and the inflated airbag, which would have blocked the blood splatter from the passenger side, as well as the amount of force on the source of the blood.

Defence barrister Darin Honchin asked Senior Sergeant Taylor whether the fact the Mondeo had flipped on its roof and turned 180 degrees could have impacted the gravity and direction in which the blood had splattered.

She answered that she had been interested in the fact the splatter had been “dispersed very quickly”.

In an earlier cross-examination, a police officer who attended the crash scene was grilled over her conversations between multiple witnesses, in which she shared event details between those first on the scene. But in their cross-examination both women who had been in the car behind Ms Reardon and Ms Scott denied the officer’s comments put in their mind that Illin had been behind the wheel.

A pathologist also told the court both Ms Reardon and Ms Scott had THC in their system, as well as several other painkillers, but could not say how it may have impacted Ms Reardon’s driving.

The trial continues.