Shocking death of 16-year-old Joe revealed
COURT HEARS GRIM DETAILS OF STAB VICTIM’S LAST DAYS
A 16-YEAR-OLD boy’s heart stopped beating twice as an air ambulance crew desperately tried to save his life after he was stabbed at least four times.
The stark details of Joe Whitchurch’s death were revealed by a pathologist at the Nottingham trial of Jake Rollinson, who is accused of murdering him.
Rollinson, 20, denies murder but has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice after providing false accounts to a 999 call operator and police after the killing.
Before his death, Joe had allegedly been upset about a woman he had previously been sleeping with being in a hotel room with another man.
Joe was found slumped in Rollinson’s kitchen in Hickings Lane, Stapleford, in the early hours of Boxing Day last year.
The teenager was barely conscious and he was haemorrhaging blood at a terrifying rate, the jury had heard.
His blood was described as spurting from his leg. A stab wound to his chest would prove fatal.
His heart had been pierced and had stopped, resulting in his brain being starved of oxygen.
Home Office pathologist Dr Michael Biggs told Nottingham Crown Court yesterday that when an air ambulance crew arrived, its doctor confirmed Joe’s heart had stopped beating.
He had a collapsed lung with air trapped in the chest, and the doctor made an incision to release the air. The heart started beating again. Joe was taken to hospital by land ambulance but, on the way, his heart stopped beating again.
Dr Biggs said a penetrating injury to his heart was closed with an emergency procedure. Despite manual compression of the heart, the stab wound was still bleeding and more stitches were put in to try to stop it.
Blood transfusions were carried out, the heart was restarted and he was taken to an operating theatre. But then additional stab wounds were found, the jury heard.
Dr Biggs continued: “Even though this surgical intervention was undertaken, his condition remained very poor.
“His liver and kidneys were found to be abnormally functioning.”
A brain scan showed unsurvivable brain damage and Joseph died on December 29.”
Dr Biggs added that Joe had four recent “sharp force injuries – ie stab wounds”.
The most significant injury was to the left upper chest.
It had penetrated the left ventricle of the heart. Medical intervention repaired the injury and restarted the heart but the unsurvivable brain injury had already happened. The trial continues.
His liver and kidneys were found to be abnormally functioning
Dr Michael Biggs, pathologist