Preston murder trial: Adam Le Roi died of "catastrophic" wound which penetrated two major arteries

Adam Le Roi, 25, suffered three stab wounds to his left shoulder, one of which penetrated out of his armpit, and a longer wound to his back during an alleged attack at Kayley House on New Hall Lane.

UCLan archaeology graduate Connor Rumble, 25, who lived on the first floor, denies his murder alongside fellow graduate Grant Gardner, 24.

During their trial, Dr Brian Rogers, Home Office pathologist, was asked to give evidence about Mr Le Roi's injuries.

He concluded that he had died of "shock and haemorrhage due to stab wounds to the left shoulder penetrating the axillary and pulmonary arteries."

Prosecuting, Louise Blackwell QC explained to jurors Dr Rogers was asked to conduct a post mortem examination in respect of Adam Le Roi on November 15, 2020.

Jurors were shown a computer generated image of his injuries.

Speaking about the main injury, Dr Rogers said the length of the "boat shaped" wound was 3.2cm long and 1.5cm wide externally, but had penetrated 17.5cm deep at a downwards angle, through his armpit tissue. and had "sliced" a major artery which carries blood directly from the heart, called the axillary artery.

The blade continued to penetrate between the first and second rib, pierced through the upper lobe of his left lung and penetrated the pulmonary artery, which takes blood from the heart into the lungs, leaving a 1cm cut through the vessel wall.

He added: "That is going to be a catastrophic internal injury that would fill up the left chest straight away with blood.

"Realistically... in a fight and flight situation where you are exerting yourself and your heart's beating faster, the blood is going to come out faster - I would expect in a minute or so the chest would fill with blood.

"At post mortem I found over half a litre in the left chest directly but there was emergency medical treatment so bilateral chest drains had been inserted which would have drained a significant amount of blood.

"Usually with these type of injuries we tend to see a litre or so in the chest cavity.

"It is the fatal wound, we know it's gone through the lung, but you can almost ignore that - the main things are the axillary and the pulmonary artery - those are the two things that have led directly to Adam Le Roi's death."

He added the second injury on his left shoulder was a shallow wound of a few centimetres, and a third stab injury to the shoulder was 3cm long by 1cm wide.

He told the court a fourth wound to Mr le Roi's armpit was unusual to find, unless someone had had their arms up at the time. He concluded it was an exit wound from one of the other injuries, but had not caused any major vascular or nerve injury.

A fifth "gaping wound" to Mr Le Roi's lower left mid back, measured 6cm long and 2cm wide and had penetrated 14 cm but not caused any major internal damage.

However, the pathologist, having been shown CCTV and asked about the movement of the defendant, said the footage was difficult to interpret as some of the alleged incident took place behind a fire door.

He said it was 'possible' some of the wounds could have occurred at an earlier time than the CCTV footage, but that "certain things" point to them occurring immediately behind the fire door on the CCTV.

He explained the axillary artery wound would bleed immediately after being inflicted, and the blood was seen at the specific time when Mr Le Roi came back out of the fire door and not in the seconds before.

(proceeding)

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