Shields reads Woolmer’s final email

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Bob Woolmer was a “little depressed” following his team’s exit from the World Cup and he was looking forward to going home, according to an email that may have been his final words before his death in Kingston, Jamaica last March.

The email, which was sent to his wife, Gill, was read to jurors at the inquest into Woolmer’s death.

“Hi, darling, feeling a little depressed currently as you might imagine,”

the message started.

“I am not sure which is worse, being knocked out in the semifinal at Edgbaston or now in the first round. Our batting performance was abysmal and my worse fears were realised ... I could tell the players were for some reason not able to fire themselves up,”

it added.

He went on to say that he was glad not to have to travel to Guyana and was looking forward to seeing his family again.

“I hope your day was better but I doubt it as you were probably watching ... not much more to add I am afraid but I still love you lots.”

Mark Shields, Jamaica’s deputy police commissioner who was at the heart of the investigation, read the email to jurors. He is among the final witnesses in the inquest which is expected to finish this week.

The fifth week of the inquest got off to a bizarre start when a subpoenaed witness failed to turn up. David Wong Ken, a local DJ who claimed to have evidence about Woolmer’s death, failed to appear under instruction from his lawyer.

Pakistan players refuse to testify

KINGSTON, Jamaica: One of Jamaica’s top police officers has said that four members of the Pakistan cricket team have declined to testify at the inquest into the death of their former coach Bob Woolmer.

Mark Shields, Jamaica’s Deputy Commissioner of Police, told Coroner Patrick Murphy on Wednesday that former Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq was among those that refused to give testimony.

Apart from Inzamam, who had recently retired from international cricket, along with medium-pacer Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, assistant manager Asad Mustafa and former media manager Pervez Mir refused to travel to Jamaica for the inquest, which began on October 16.

Shields, who made the requests through the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), told Coroner Murphy and the 11 jurors that both players said they were unable to make it.

“Mustafa said he has already given a statement to the police,”

Shields added.

“I spoke to Sattar at 5:50 am on Wednesday and he said he was involved in a car accident in May and has not worked since. He said it would be huge inconvenience for him to attend,”

said Shields. Woolmer died hours after he was found unconscious in his Jamaica hotel room on March 18, a day after Pakistan suffered a humiliated defeat to Ireland at the World Cup of cricket.

‘Woolmer was planning to retire’

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Bob Woolmer was planning to retire from international cricket after the World Cup, Murray Stevenson, the Pakistan team’s former fitness trainer, told the inquest into the former Pakistan coach’s death.

Stevenson said Woolmer had told him minutes after Pakistan’s loss to Ireland on March 17 — which led to Pakistan’s elimination from the tournament — the match against Zimbabwe would be his last.

“He told me he had two bottles of champagne in his room at the hotel and we would drink it on Wednesday when the team played Zimbabwe, because it would be his last game in international cricket,”

Stevenson was quoted in the Jamaica Gleaner.

Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room the next day and was declared dead after being taken to the hospital.

Stevenson indicated Woolmer was apprehensive of returning to Pakistan after the loss to Ireland and that he overheard him talking to Asad Mustafa, the Pakistan team’s operations manager.

‘Woolmer was poisoned and strangled’

KINGSTON: The pathologist who performed a controversial autopsy on former Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer said on Wednesday that the Englishman was poisoned and then strangled.

Dr Ere Shesiah, chief consultant pathologist of the Jamaican government, told an inquest that Woolmer

“died of asphyxia due to manual strangulation associated with Cypermethrinide poisoning”.

Cypermethrin is a pesticide used frequently in countries including the United Kingdom, China, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, said Shesiah, who had never before publicly linked Woolmer’s death to poisoning.

Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious in his Kingston hotel room on March 18, a day after Pakistan were knocked out of the cricket World Cup following an upset loss to Ireland. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital shortly after.

Police started a murder investigation days later after it was revealed that the autopsy, which investigators said was inconclusive at first, found that he died of manual strangulation.

That investigation ended on June 12 when Jamaica’s police commissioner said the constabulary would accept the opinion of three independent pathologists that Woolmer had died of natural causes, possibly a heart attack. Shesiah, an Indian national who has made Jamaica his home for more than 15 years, said that he never told police that the autopsy was inconclusive.

“At no time did I use the word inconclusive in any of my deliberations with the police,”

Shesiah said under cross examination by Jamaica’s director of public prosecutions Kent Pantry.

“I told the police at the time that the autopsy was pending. I also never used the word suspicious, which the police used early in their investigations,”

Shesiah said.

Shesiah said that when the murder investigation was called off on June 12 he had still not received the toxicology report.

“I received a faxed copy of the toxicology report on June 21, and the report concluded that a poisonous toxin was found in Mr Woolmer’s stomach,”

Shesiah said.

“I stand by my findings that Mr Woolmer was strangled and, based upon additional information which I received, he was also poisoned,”

Shesiah said.

Shesiah’s technique has been criticised by international pathologists who have testified at the inquest but he remained defiant, saying he had applied the correct methods in carrying out the post mortem.

Shesiah, who suffered a stroke three weeks ago, will be in the witness box again as the inquest led by coroner Patrick Murphy entered its eighth day on Thursday.

Pathologist tells Woolmer inquest cause of death uncertain

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Canadian pathologist Michael Pollanen told the inquest into the death of Bob Woolmer that he couldn’t determine the cause of death of the Pakistan cricket coach who died during the World Cup in March.

Pollanen testified on Monday that Woolmer wasn’t strangled, as police initially suggested.

Under cross-examination by Director of Prosecutions Kent Pantry, Pollanen said that he understood a foreign substance was detected in Woolmer’s body.

Questioned by Pantry as to whether he was informed that poison was detected in Woolmer’s body, Pollanen said:

“I was aware that there was a positive toxicology finding relating to Woolmer’s death.”

Pressed to explain the foreign substance and about his knowledge of a toxin called cypermethrin, Pollanen responded by saying

“it is a form of insecticide or herbicide.”

Pollanen said he couldn’t state the symptoms that cypermethrin would induce in a person, but he did say

“it could weaken the body movement"

Pollanen also told coroner Patrick Murphy and the 11-member jury that he was not presented with a copy of the toxicology report, which made it impossible for him to determine the cause of death.

Pollanen said that in his opinion strangulation wasn’t indicated as the cause of death.

“If the hyoid bone (in the neck) was broken, it would be a good evidence of injury to the neck,” he said. “It was not broken in this case.”

Jamaican government pathologist Ere Sheshiah had said Woolmer died of manual strangulation - a conclusion that rocked the cricket world as Jamaican authorities said they were treating his death as murder.

The former 58-year-old former England international was found unconscious in his room at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on March 18, a day after Pakistan made a shock exit from the cricket World Cup, losing to minnows Ireland.

When authorities said the death was suspicious, it prompted speculation that it might somehow be linked to match-fixing in international cricket.

In June, Jamaican police said further investigation showed Woolmer died of natural causes.

“In my view there is no foundation of physical attack or pressure on the neck,”

Pollanen testified.

Pollanen said Sheshiah failed to follow proper procedures when he examined Woolmer’s neck.

“Base on the evidence, I would exclude strangulation as the cause of death,”

he said.

He added, however, that the hyoid bone doesn’t have to be fractured for strangulation to take place.

When asked if he would entirely rule out strangulation, he responded “No.”

According to images shown at the inquest, Woolmer had injuries to the face and neck.

Pollanen agreed with Sheshiah that bleeding would be caused from the injuries.

“If there is bleeding in these areas, there would be a head injury, which may be caused from a fixed, hard surface,”

he noted, adding that the injuries could have been the result of the face

“coming in contact with a hard surface.”

The inquest had previously heard that Woolmer was found with his head under the toilet bowl and that medical personal had to move him in order to attempt to revive him.

The inquest, presided over by Murphy and an 11-member jury, is to determine the cause of Woolmer’s death and whether anyone bears responsibility.

Jamaican police begin inquest to find Woolmer’s death cause

KINGSTON: Jamaican police have began the inquest on Tuesday to know the reason of the death of Pakistan cricket team’s coach Bob Woolmer.

Jamaican police have not ruled out a violent crime in the death of Bob Woolmer.

The inquest aims to determine if anyone bears responsibility for the death of the 58-year-old coach, who was found unconscious in his hotel room March 18, a day after his team was eliminated from cricket's World Cup.

"There was a lot of speculation, and as a result of that speculation we are having the inquest,"

Sgt. Dwayne Jex of the Jamaica Constabulary Force said Monday.

More than 50 people are expected to testify. Jex estimated the process would take more than two months.

Jamaican authorities initially said a preliminary autopsy was inconclusive, but a few days after Woolmer's death police announced he had been strangled, setting off a worldwide homicide probe.

Investigators collected dozens of DNA samples and fingerprints from potential witnesses, including members of the Pakistan cricket squad and other teams.

Months later, Jamaica's police commissioner announced authorities closed their homicide investigation after getting opinions from three independent pathologists from Britain, South Africa and Canada and reviewing a toxicology report.

Police said it would be up to Jamaica's coroner to issue the official cause of death after the inquest.

Woolmer inquest date is announced

The long-awaited coroner's inquest into the death of the former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer will begin on October 16, according to a Jamaica radio station.

Woolmer was found unconscious in his Kingston hotel room, a day after Pakistan's shock defeat against Ireland at Sabina Park - a result that condemned them to an early exit from the World Cup.

Acting on autopsy findings, Jamaica police initially said Woolmer had been strangled and launched a murder investigation. It was an announcement that sparked a media frenzy with speculation rife about a possible link with matchfixing.

The news was also a blow for Jamaica itself, a tourism-dependant country that is already plagued by one of the world's highest murder rates. But eventually, after months of investigation and a re-examination of the autopsy results, the police backtracked and said that Woolmer had died of natural causes, probably heart failure.

Ken Pantry, Jamaica's director of public prosecutions, said that more than 50 witnesses will be called at the inquest, to be held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston.

Cops to give final verdict on Woolmer

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Jamaica police have scheduled a news conference for next Tuesday (tomorrow) in which it will reveal former Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer’s cause of death, a police source said on Saturday.

The news conference will be addressed by police commissioner Lucius Thomas, who will read a statement, outline toxicology results and give details of post mortem examinations carried out on Woolmer’s body. Woolmer was found unconscious in his Kingston hotel room on March 18, a day after Pakistan had suffered a shock loss to Ireland in the World Cup. He was pronounced dead shortly after.

Local police decided to instigate a murder investigation into the Briton’s death following a release of the autopsy report that stated he had been strangled.

However, a pathologist attached to Britain’s Scotland Yard reported that Woolmer died of natural causes, a claim made before by two Pakistan police officers, who were in Kingston as part of the investigating team.

News reports have speculated that police would be changing their position from murder to death by natural causes, and police sources believe that Thomas will outline that view at next week’s news conference.

Jamaican police insist Woolmer was murdered

Jamaican police are insisting that Bob Woolmer was murdered amid reports that Pakistani investigators have suggested otherwise due to lack of conclusive evidence. Karl Angell, director of communication for the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), said that the investigation was based on credible evidence.

"The pathologist did an autopsy. He said to us in a written report that the man died from asphyxiation occasioned by manual strangulation, based on that our investigation proceeded but we have always said that the investigation is an open investigation and all angles are being looked at," Angell told The Gleaner.

Mir Zubair Mahmood, one of the two investigators sent by the Pakistani government to assist with the police probe in Jamaica, told reporters that there is no evidence to suggest that the Pakistan coach was murdered. However, according to Angell, Mahmood denied speaking to any reporters with such claims.

"Mahmood has indicated to us that a report was submitted to his boss that he had no discussion with any journalists or with anybody else regarding the report," confirmed Angell. "In private conversation with the Constabulary Force, Mahmood said that he is pleased with the way the investigation was going and he made no such deductions."

The complete report from the pathology and toxicology results is being analysed with the help of the Scotland Yard and are yet to be released.

Woolmer murder case: 80 people seen on CCTV to be identified

JAMAICA: Jamaican police said that it was investigating about the 80 persons, who were seen on close circuit television. They were supposed to have met with Bob Woolmer on that tragic night when he was reportedly murdred.

Deputy Commissioner Police Mark Schields told a foreign news agency that some 80 persons were seen on CCTV coming to meet Woolmer in the Pegasus Hotel in Jamaica.

Investigations are being carried out for identifying dozens of them.

Mark Schields did not tell that how many of them have so far been identified.

He said that the police is considering the possibilities that if there was any religious tussle in the team behind the murder. However, he said that their investigations were not focusing this point.

Next week, Mark Schields will discuss the issue with toxicology experts in Britain and later proceed to Sout Africa for interviewing Gill Woolmer.