Nicholas Dill was killed by two fatal wounds to the back on Boxing Day, 2004, forensic pathologist Dr. Valerie Rao testified in the murder trial of Andre Hypolite in Supreme Court yesterday.

Dr. Rao said Mr. Dill bled to death as a result of his stabbing and much of the blood could be seen at the murder scene at Pearman?s Hill, Warwick.

?There was a lot of blood. This scene was one of the bloodiest I have visited,? said Dr. Rao, who has been giving expert evidence for 11 years. ?The injuries to his back would all be on the inside, into his abdomen.?

Mr. Dill had just 45 minutes left to live at the scene without emergency medical treatment, she said, as his insides slowly filled with blood.

?In this instance he did receive medical therapy but it was too late,? Dr. Rao said.

Andre Kirk Everett Hypolite, 33, of no fixed abode, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr. Dill and has also denied wounding Stacy Ann Pike with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm on Boxing Day, 2004.

The expert forensic pathologist said a seven- to eight-inch deep stab wound punctured Mr. Dill?s spleen, as well as his colic artery ? a vessel inside the body that comes off the aorta and supplies the bowel with blood.

?His spleen was injured by the knife,? she told the six-woman, six-man jury. ?It went from the back all the way forward to injure his spleen.?

A second, three-inch deep stab-wound went through his back with such force that it broke a rib and entered his spinal cord, she said, barely missing a nerve that would have paralysed him.

?It was caused by significant force because this was an adult, muscular individual,? Dr. Rao said of the stabbing victim. ?His bones were not frail and old. His bones were fairly sturdy so the force used to cause this trauma was significant.?

The knife used in Mr. Dill?s murder was serrated and could have been no shorter than seven to eight inches inches long, she said.

Dr. Rao agreed with Senior Crown counsel Paula Tyndale that Mr. Dill?s wounds were consistent with an attacker pulling him forward, reaching over his shoulder and plunging the knife twice into his back.

?It was a frontal attack but the injury was done to the back,? Dr. Rao said.

Mr. Dill also had defensive wounds on both hands ? including a three-and-a-quarter inch deep wound that severed a radial artery and tendon, and fractured a bone ? as he tried to grab and block the knife.

?The degree of force used would have been significant in order to fracture the bone,? she said. ?The thrust was pretty severe.?

Ms Pike, was left with an injury caused by a sharp weapon that needed a line of sutures from below her hairline to the middle of her forehead to close, the doctor said.

?She also had injuries to the palm and fingers of both hands, in an attempt to grab a weapon being used by someone,? Dr. Rao said.

However, defence lawyer Mark Pettingill claimed a toxicology report prepared by Government Analyst Quigley showed a fatal level of cocaine in Mr. Dill before he died.

During his cross-examination, Mr. Pettingill suggested to Dr. Rao that she could not be sure that Mr. Dill did not have a fatal level of drugs in his system, because she did not have his toxicology results from Bermuda before determining his cause of death.

Dr. Rao also revealed Mr. Dill had the drug Methylene Dioxy Meth Amphetamine (MDMA) ? or ecstasy ? in his system before he died.

?In this case there were some drugs of abuse,? she explained. ?He also had a presence of metabolized cocaine. He did use cocaine in the past 24 hours.?

But she disagreed that Mr. Dill died of a drug overdose.

?No, in this case the cocaine was recreational, not at a fatal level,? she said. ?There is absolutely no doubt that he died of the stab wounds.?

The stimulant cocaine and drug ecstasy could cause seizures, very high body temperatures, cardiac arrhythmia, delirium and bizarre behaviour, Dr. Rao told Ms Tyndale in re-examination, however, she saw no medical signs of an overdose.

?He had done drugs in the past but did not die. He was alive and was subsequently stabbed to death,? Dr. Rao said.

The case continues on Monday.