Rick Dean
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http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/N.../31/402775.html
Blows rained on Farah
Injuries show girl used arms, legs to shield herself: Doctor
By SAM PAZZANO, COURTS BUREAU
Farah Khan tried to fend off her attacker's blows by using her forearms, hands and shins as shields, her murder trial was told yesterday. Pathologist Dr. David Chiasson testified the 5-year-old girl suffered defensive injuries and was perhaps curled up on the floor, trying to protect herself with her shins.
"These almost symmetrical injuries on her forearms and hands could wel
represent a defensive posture by Farah," he said.
Chiasson told the jury that Farah's 30 injuries could have been inflicted by someone punching, kicking, stomping on or striking the 35-pou
nd
irl with a rolling pin or shoe.
But the veteran pathologiscouldn't pinpoin
t a cause of death because the child's torso has never been recovered.
Chiasson told Crown attorney David Fisher that a blow to the flat surface of a table, but not its edge, could have caused an injury to Farah's head.
Her father, Muhammad Arsal Khan, has testified he and then-wife Kaneez Fatima bashed Farah's head against a table the night she died.
Chiasson doubted whether a "recent" brain injury killed Farah, explaining that a recent injury is defined as occurring less than 48 hours before death.
"Generally, that's not an injury you'd expect to be fatal. It's possible ... but it's not likely. You'd expect most people to survive."
It is believed that animals carried off Farah's torso from the Etobicoke park where her father and stepmom hid her remains in December 1999.
Khan admitted he killed Farah-- but sa
ys i
t was uni
ntentional -- and dismembered and decapitated her. The prosecution maintains the killing was intentional and both Khan, 40, and Fatima, 49, ar
e guilty.
Both have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
Blows rained on Farah
Injuries show girl used arms, legs to shield herself: Doctor
By SAM PAZZANO, COURTS BUREAU
Farah Khan tried to fend off her attacker's blows by using her forearms, hands and shins as shields, her murder trial was told yesterday. Pathologist Dr. David Chiasson testified the 5-year-old girl suffered defensive injuries and was perhaps curled up on the floor, trying to protect herself with her shins.
"These almost symmetrical injuries on her forearms and hands could wel
represent a defensive posture by Farah," he said.
Chiasson told the jury that Farah's 30 injuries could have been inflicted by someone punching, kicking, stomping on or striking the 35-pou
nd
irl with a rolling pin or shoe.
But the veteran pathologiscouldn't pinpoin
t a cause of death because the child's torso has never been recovered.
Chiasson told Crown attorney David Fisher that a blow to the flat surface of a table, but not its edge, could have caused an injury to Farah's head.
Her father, Muhammad Arsal Khan, has testified he and then-wife Kaneez Fatima bashed Farah's head against a table the night she died.
Chiasson doubted whether a "recent" brain injury killed Farah, explaining that a recent injury is defined as occurring less than 48 hours before death.
"Generally, that's not an injury you'd expect to be fatal. It's possible ... but it's not likely. You'd expect most people to survive."
It is believed that animals carried off Farah's torso from the Etobicoke park where her father and stepmom hid her remains in December 1999.
Khan admitted he killed Farah-- but sa
ys i
t was uni
ntentional -- and dismembered and decapitated her. The prosecution maintains the killing was intentional and both Khan, 40, and Fatima, 49, ar
e guilty.
Both have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.