KOTA KINABALU: Thirteen-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir was likely conscious when she fell from the third storey of her school hostel, the Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday (Sept 11).
Forensic pathologist Dr Jessie Hiu testified that the teenager’s injuries indicated she had landed on her feet before falling backwards and hitting her head on the ground.
She said this indicated Zara Qairina was standing upright and conscious at the time, not already incapacitated.
Dr Hiu was replying to a question from Datuk Ram Singh, a lawyer for one of the teenagers charged with bullying Zara Qairina, who suggested that if the deceased had been unconscious and carried before being dropped from the third floor of the dormitory, it would have been extremely difficult to position her to land on both feet at the precise location.
“It would have been very difficult for anyone to carry an unconscious body and position it to land feet-first. In short, Zara Qairina was likely conscious and standing upright beside the ledge before the fall,” she told the court.
The inquest, which entered its sixth day, had earlier conducted a reconstruction at the female dormitory building of SMKA Tun Datu Mustapha in Papar, testing two possible fall scenarios with mannequins.
In the first, a mannequin seated on the railing and pushed from behind landed face down some distance from the building, while the second, a mannequin standing on the ledge, fell straight down, landing on its feet near the wall.
Dr Hiu said the second scenario better matched Zara Qairina’s injuries, which included fractures to both feet and a laceration to the back of her head.
She clarified that while CT (computed tomography) scans initially suggested the injury was at the top of the head, the post-mortem confirmed a haematoma and laceration at the back, consistent with Zara Qairina falling backwards after impact.
When asked whether a blunt object could have caused the injuries, she explained that such an assault would usually leave multiple external wounds or fractures.
Dismissing the possibility that Zara Qairina was struck on the head with a blunt object, Dr Hiu explained that an assault would usually cause multiple external injuries, skull fractures and localised brain trauma.
Instead, she said that the injuries were consistent with deceleration trauma from a fall.
“In this case, the bleeding pattern and injuries are consistent with deceleration trauma from a fall,” she said.
The inquest, presided over by Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan, continues.
