The case takes an even stupider turn.....
The expert witness who suggested that American researcher Shane
Todd was murdered, has recanted part of the findings in his
post-mortem report.
Dr Edward Adelstein, who was testifying at a coroner's inquiry on
Tuesday via video-link from the United States, now says Dr Todd had
not been garrotted - a term that means strangulation with a wire or
cord. He says he now agrees with the reports by four other
pathologist that it was not a garrotting because of the absence of
broken blood vessels and neck injuries.
But he maintains that Dr Todd was
killed, possibly by more than one man "because Shane is well-built,
there must have been more than one assassin".
The body of Dr Todd was found hanged in his apartment last June but
his parents believed he was murdered and had engaged Dr Adelstein
to produce an independent post-mortem report.
He was initially supposed to testify to his report that their son -
whom they believed was killed over his work at the Singapore Institute
of Microelectronics (IME) - was strangled but changed his position
when confronted by the State Counsel.
Dr Adelstein's earlier report was also the only one, out of five
commissioned, which concluded that it was murder. Two of those
reports from independent overseas experts engaged by the State had
concluded it was suicide, while veteran pathologist, Dr Wee Keng
Poh from the Health Sciences Authority, had testified last week
that Dr Todd died from hanging.
Medical evidence supported that finding said Dr Wee, who has
conducted more than 10,000 autopsies, including at least 800 cases
of asphyxia due to hanging.
Dr Adelstein had told the court
earlier that he is not a published forensic pathologist but medical
examiner and a trained veterinarian. At the time of the
review of Dr Todd's case last October, he had dealt with 25 hanging
cases.
