A MAN who was dragged from his car and kicked to death in front of his girlfriend, died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck, the Central Criminal Court heard.
Valeri Ranert (27), from Estonia, of Westend Village, Blanchardstown, Dublin, was attacked as he and his girlfriend sat in his car at a viewing bay beside Dublin airport 2½ years ago.
Ian Daly (26), Moatview Drive, Priorswood, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Ranert on or about April 30th, 2007, at Naul Road, Swords. He also denies hijacking Mr Ranert’s car on the same occasion.
State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy testified yesterday that Mr Ranert was healthy before the attack and that he died of head and neck injuries due to blunt force trauma.
There were numerous injuries all over his head and neck, including a honeycomb pattern on his forehead and over his right ear, a fan-shaped pattern also over the right ear and another patterned bruise behind the right jaw.
She said the three patterns indicated at least three separate blows to the right side of the head and that these patterns could have been caused by shoes.
She said his skull was flattened at the top, his brain was coated in a film of blood and haemorrhages were also found inside the brain. This suggested diffuse axonal injury, which is caused by sudden movement of the brain leading to its nerve cell filaments being snapped.
She said each blow to the head could cause the snapping of these filaments, which can lead to rapid unconsciousness and rapid death. This would be consistent with Jelena Sirokova’s account that the first kick to her boyfriend’s head rendered him unconscious even before he was dragged from the car and with numerous accounts that he appeared to be dead by the time the emergency services arrived.
Dr Cassidy said there was also trauma to the neck and that this could also cause cardiac arrest and instant death. She used the example of a karate chop to the neck being capable of killing.
Blood-stained liquid found in his lungs suggested that Mr Ranert might have inhaled blood from his head injuries while unconscious. This might have blocked his airwaves, starving his brain of oxygen. However this would usually take hours or days to cause death, she said.
Dr Cassidy found no defensive injuries on the victim but found numerous injuries on his body caused by broken glass. This was consistent with Ms Sirokova’s testimony of the attackers smashing the car windows on both sides before dragging him to his death on the glass-covered road.
On Tuesday Ms Sirokova, also Estonian, trembled as she left the witness box after recounting the attack by two strangers as she and her boyfriend sat watching aircraft take off.
The couple had met in Dublin more than two years earlier, but she moved home to Estonia following the death of Mr Ranert, who worked as a forklift truck driver at the Superquinn depot in Blanchardstown.
The trial before Mr Justice George Birmingham has now gone into legal argument in the absence of the jury and will continue in its presence this afternoon.