KOTA KINABALU: Thirteen-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir was likely conscious when she plunged from the third floor of her school hostel, the Coroner’s Court here heard.
Forensic pathologist Dr Jessie Hiu testified that the teenager’s injuries showed she had landed on her feet before falling backwards, and striking her head on the ground.
She said this indicated Zara Qairina was standing upright and conscious at the time, and was not incapacitated.
Dr Hiu was replying to a question from Datuk Ram Singh, a lawyer for one of the five teenagers charged with bullying Zara Qairina.
The lawyer had 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 for her to land on both feet at the precise location.
“In short, she was likely conscious and standing upright beside the ledge before the fall,” Dr Hiu told the court yesterday.
The inquest, which entered its sixth day, had earlier conducted a reconstruction – testing two possible fall scenarios with mannequins – at the female dormitory building of SMKA Tun Datu Mustapha in Papar.
In the first scenario, a mannequin seated on the railing and pushed from behind, landed face down some distance from the building, while in 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 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 the injuries could have been caused by a blunt object, Dr Hiu dismissed the possibility, explaining an assault would usually cause multiple external injuries, skull fractures and localised brain trauma.
Instead, she said, Zara Qairina’s injuries were consistent with deceleration trauma from a fall.
The inquest, presided over by Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan, continues today.
