CONTROVERSIAL GOVERNMENT pathologist, Dr. Ere Sheshaiah, yesterday continued to defend his stance that Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was murdered, and that the autopsy procedure he used to come to that conclusion is sound.

Dr. Sheshaiah, who testified for a second straight day, was the only witness to take the stand on the eighth day of the coroner's inquest at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston.

Videotape

During the opening session, the court viewed a videotape of the India-born doctor removing Woolmer's hyoid bone. In it, he told police officers, including Assistant Commissioner Les Green, that the right side of the bone had 'abnormal activity', which indicated a fracture.

Later, after looking at an X-ray which showed the bone was not fractured, Dr. Sheshaiah said he might have been wrong.

"After examining the X-ray, there is a real possibility it may not be broken," he said. "But even if there is no fracture of the hyoid bone, I stand by my opinion."

Three foreign pathologists - Dr. Nathaniel Cary of Britain's Metropolitan Police; Dr. Michael Pollanen, chief forensic pathologist of Ontario, Canada; and Professor Lorna Jean Martin of South Africa - who examined reports, autopsy video and X-rays of the Woolmer case, concluded that the hyoid bone was not fractured.

They also disagreed with Dr. Sheshaiah's initial ruling that the cause of death was asphyxia caused by manual strangulation. Yesterday, Dr. Sheshaiah dismissed their criticisms. He told Director of Public Prosecutions, Kent Pantry, that he was in a better position to make a ruling since he conducted the only post-mortem on Woolmer's body.

On Wednesday, Dr. Sheshaiah testified that he changed the ruling to asphyxia caused by manual strangulation associated with cypermethrin poisoning, after seeing a toxicology report on June 21.