Family go to Israeli civil court to challenge ‘natural causes’ verdict
BLOOD spills found on the face, limbs and back of a Scots hotel worker who died in Israel may have been caused by an attack, a pathologist has claimed.
Expat hotel worker Julie Pearson, from Kinross, died at the Red Sea resort of Eliat last November hours after being attacked by her boyfriend, her family claim.
Relatives of the 38-year-old say she was assaulted by her on-off boyfriend the day before she was found, having suffered from an internal haemorrhage.
She was unable to be revived and the post-mortem report carried out by a forensic institute in Tel Aviv blamed a rare condition, idiopathic spontaneous intraperitoneal haemorrhage, for her death.
It also noted that she had a high percentage of alcohol in her blood when she died.
The official forensic report, which Ms Pearson’s family only received last week – eight months after she died – noted marks on her face and body but still concluded that she died of natural causes, a finding which relatives dispute. Israeli pathologist Dr Ricardo Nachmann said he was unclear what caused the injury but it was possibly the result of a blow to her body.
However the report has angered her family who are looking to have the case reopened.
Her boyfriend had already served a month in jail in May last year for assaulting her.
Julie’s aunt, Deborah Pearson, who is hoping to raise £2,000 to start a civil action in Israel’s courts, said: “I’m going to take it to a civil court in Israel to see if there’s a possibility the beatings contributed to her death.
“I have a lawyer in Israel and he was just waiting on the report.
“It says the haemorrhage could be the result of an injury that didn’t have to be a powerful one.
“So if a person is weak, it could just take one blow to kill them.”
While Julie had had a troubled time after moving to Israel to start a new life – her visa had run out and she was moving in circles where alcohol and drug abuse was common – the family have had expert advice from a UK forensic pathologist that her death was unlikely to have been caused by heavy drinking.
Deborah Pearson said she was convinced the boyfriend was to blame: “[He] beat her the night before and was punching and kicking her in the stomach.
“I know her death was because of him.
“You don’t just haemorrhage for no reason,” she said.