Vincent Tabak trial:Joanna Yeates blood-stained body photos shown in court

The man accused of murdering Joanna Yeates today wept in court as pictures of the architect’s body ‘in a foetal-type position’ were displayed in court.

Vincent Tabak, who admits manslaughter but denies murder, removed his glasses and rubbed tears from his eyes as a close-up image of her face with blood-stained short blonde hair was shown on screens.

Her eyes were closed and one of her earring studs was in place. Red bruise marks were shown on her neck and chin. There was also blood underneath her nose, pathologist Dr Russell Delaney told the jury.

A Dutch interpreter was brought into the dock to make sure the defendant understood medical terms as pathologist Dr Delaney took the stand.

Purple bruising above Miss Yeates’s right eye and a graze on her cheek were found by Dr Delaney.

Injuries on her nose and lip were also suffered while Miss Yeates was still alive, the court heard.

Dr Delaney said: ‘Bruising only occurs when the heart is beating – so the injuries occurred during life.’ Haemorrhages were noted by Dr Delaney on her eyelids and face.

‘The particular haemorrhages in the skin, face and eyelids are signs there has been venous obstruction in the head and neck,’ Dr Delaney said.

Post-mortem examinations continued on Boxing Day. There were apparent blood stains on her flower patterned pink top but no signs of sexual injuries, Dr Delaney said.

Three images were shown of the police process to remove her body using two straps. There was also a picture of the imprint her corpse had left in a pile of leaves.

The images taken after she was removed in a body bag to Flax Bourton mortuary showed her lying on her right side with her jeans still intact but her pink top pulled up over her head, exposing her navel and her grey bra.

Her right arm was bent around her head while her left was resting straight across her body.
A picture of her right foot with the sock removed was also shown.

She had been wearing a chunky white watch with a silver necklace and pendant.

 

Dr Delaney performed the first examination at 6pm on the day her body was found.

Appearing in the witness box, Dr Delaney said: ‘We did not know at that stage what condition the body was in.’

A dog walker earlier told how he had found Miss Yeates’ frozen body after spotting her jeans poking out of the snow in Christmas morning.

Daniel Birch said in a statement read to the jury that he carried on walking for 10 paces before realising the snow-covered mound he saw was the body of murdered Miss Yeates.

Forensic officers also used a broom handle to help recover her frozen body from a country lane on Christmas Day, the court heard.

Mr Birch and his wife Rebecca had been walking their chocolate labrador Roxy shortly before 9am after opening their presents early.

They discovered a ‘lump’ at the side of Longwood Lane, Failand, Somerset, after parking their Mini One car nearby, Bristol Crown Court heard.

In a police statement read out to the jury, Mr Birch said: ‘After walking for about 100 metres I saw a lump in the snow and what appeared to be a denim jeans pocket on the left-hand verge.

‘I didn’t think about it straightaway and continued walking.

‘After about 10 paces, my mind was saying “that’s a body” to me.’

Mr Birch handed Roxy’s lead to his wife before turning round to inspect the body.

‘I said to Rebecca “That was a body”,’ Mr Birch said.

Miss Yeates was lying adjacent to the road with her knees pointing towards a quarry wall.

In his statement, Mr Birch remembered the top of Miss Yeates’s white knickers and part of her bare back being exposed through the snow.

Martin Faithfull, a forensic officer who reached the scene after police arrived shortly after 9am, told how he tried to prevent Miss Yeates’s body thawing out.

Officers avoided putting a tent over her body amid fears that evidence could be compromised, the jury heard.

Tabak’s QC, William Clegg, questioned why photographs were not taken of a broom being used to arrange straps underneath the body so her body could be taken away.

‘I can’t comment on why that was the case,’ Mr Faithfull said.

‘The straps that we used are hooked around the broom so it would have to be the straps that come into contact with the body.’

Miss Yeates suffered 43 injuries after being strangled by Tabak at her Clifton flat on December 17, the court has heard.

Yesterday the court saw new CCTV footage showing Miss Yeates enjoying pre-Christmas drinks with her friends and work colleagues on the night she was killed.

The jury heard she had been her usual ‘jovial’ self in the Ram pub in the city, but within a few hours she had been strangled.

The court also heard that Tabak sipped champagne the night after he killed MissYeates and later joked with friends that police had looked inside a drawer in his flat for her body.

 

On the night she was killed, Miss Yeates had bought a pint for colleague Darragh Bellew, a landscape architect, during post-work festive drinks.

Poignantly she told him she was planning to bake cakes and bread so had to leave.

The new pictures show her leaving the pub toilet, heading back to speak to her friends and then putting on her coat and going home.

A couple also spoke of their pain at hearing what they think were screams from Miss Yeates’ flat on the night that she was killed.

Florian Lehman said he and his wife Zoe were walking from their house in Clifton Village to attend a party on Canynge Road in Bristol – opposite her home.

The couple had left home at 8.35pm and went to buy a bottle of wine from the Bargain Booze off-licence before heading to the party. He said that, after they opened the gate of No 53 and walked down the path, they heard two screams.

 

‘We were through the gate and we were in the middle of the footpath between the gate and the entrance…’ Mr Lehman told the jury.

‘That’s when I heard two screams. They were quite loud. They seemed to me to come from quite a distance.

‘The first scream was just for a moment, a scream and then a little pause, maybe just two seconds, and a second scream which was a lot shorter.

‘The first one was louder. The first was longer.’

Mr Lehman said he thought the screams were coming from the direction of the Clifton College playing fields, which are next to Miss Yeates’ flat.

 

Another partygoer and a neighbour also both told the court how they heard screams on the night of Miss Yeates’ death but dismissed the noise as students.

Matthew Phillips said in a police statement that he heard a ‘shriek’ while walking to a drinks party on Canynge Road.

Harry Walker told the court he heard a yell at about 8.30pm as he prepared to sit down for pudding with his girlfriend.

He told jurors: ‘I would say it was definitely a human noise. It was definitely not an animal.

‘At the time I thought it must have been students out in the road as it was the end of term. But it was a bit early for that.’

Miss Yeates’s next-door neighbour Tabak admits manslaughter but denies murder.

The case continues.

After-work drinks: Miss Yeates drank a pint and a half of cider with colleagues at the Bristol Ram pub before returning home, where she was killed by Tabak

 

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