He was asked further about the injuries. He said there were four traumatic injuries at least. These were the injuries to each side of the face and the two injuries to the left hand. He could not be certain whether the hand had received one or two blows. There were at least three impacts. He could not be certain whether there were more, but there were arguments favouring the view that there might have been more. So far as the skull was concerned, there could only be some possible bruising which indicated subdural or brain haemorrhage. There was no attempt or any sign of an attempt to dismember the body in any way.
Then we had read to us the statement by Dr. Wilkinson, who carried out the reconstruction of the fragmented skull, and you have got those pictures in your folder if it assists you on anything.
Well, I am going to turn now to knots and ropes. We heard about the tying of the body, and the evidence we had by way of expert evidence on this case came from Dr. Ide, Dr. Roger Ide. He has a series of formal qualifications, and he said he had been a forensic scientist for some 35 years. He had received information about the finding of the body in August of 1997, and about a week after its recovery, he had examined the ropes and packaging associated with the body. He examined also certain ropes and knotting known to be associated with Mr. Park, either from Bluestones, his present address in Barrow and also from a boat owned by Mr. Park. He gave us a little information about the limits of his expertise. He said he could sometimes tell the manner and sequence of tying knots. He could determine the effects of pressures on knots once they are tied, and sometimes he can identify whether there has been a struggle or not in the victim after tying, but that was not material here. He demonstrated for us, you may think with admirable dexterity, the knots that were involved in the present matter, and one's jaw dropped open when we saw how quickly he did it. He showed us two overhand knots as he called them, the granny knot and the reef knot. You may remember that Mr. Park was shown a rope of his own in which he had identified a knot as a granny knot in the course of his interviews. He said it was not a granny knot but an overhand knot. My recollection is that Mr. Ide considered both reef knots and grannies were overhands, but there it is.