The injuries to dead two-year-old D'shun Dill were the worst case of child abuse an American pathologist had seen in nearly 20 years experience, Supreme Court heard yesterday.

The evidence came on the first day of the trial of alleged child killer Paul Christian Darrell.

Florida pathologist Dr. Valerie Rau said: "This was one of the worst cases of child abuse I've ever seen and I've seen many.'' And she told the court that tests conducted on tissue samples showed D'shun had been beaten before.

"In terms of the various injuries, to the front and back (of his body)...there were so many episodes of healing and injury. It was not just one episode.'' Darrell, of Hamilton Parish, pleaded not guilty to unlawfully killing his son, D'shun on December 14, 1994. The trial comes after a Coroner's Inquest last February.

Dr. Rau, a medical examiner from Dade County, Florida, yesterday told the seven-man, five-woman jury that the little boy died from blood loss and shock resulting from injuries caused by a blunt instrument.

And she said "with a high degree of certainty'' that the injuries occurred the same day that the child was brought to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

"There were so many injuries to the abdomen that the child would have been in extreme pain,'' Dr. Rau said.

During the December 16, 1994 autopsy, Dr. Rau said she discovered a series of external injuries to the little boy's back, scars to his buttocks plus bruising to his forehead, abdomen, ears, cheeks, groin and neck.

She said she traced a pattern on the back of the child's left leg which matched the pattern of a wooden spoon.

Dr. Rau said there was "tremendous'' internal bleeding in D'shun's back and stomach and a "big pocket of blood'' was found in the buttock.

"The child could not sit down after this because it would have been too painful,'' she added.

Dr. Rau said the 750 cubic centimetres of blood found in the stomach was caused by a torn bowel.

"He would not have been running around,'' she said of the fatal beating. "He would have been vomiting and doubled over in pain.'' Earlier, during his opening remarks, Crown Counsel Khamisi Tokunbo warned the jury that the trial was "an extreme case of child abuse''.

He said that during the two-week trial, the Crown's 15 witnesses would tell the jury that D'shun was a healthy boy when he went to live with his father and his girlfriend on November 16, 1994.

And that by Darrell's own admissions, Mr. Tokunbo said, D'shun was alone with his father the day that he died.

He said that Darrell claimed that while the pair were at Burchall's Cove, looking at some boats, D'shun slipped and fell.

"But the medical evidence will be that the boy's death wasn't the result of a fall,'' Mr. Tokunbo said. "It was by the tremendous application of force consistent with child abuse.'' He added that four doctors fought a desperate emergency room battle to save the child -- who arrived with total heart failure -- but he could not be revived.

The trial will continue today before Puisne Judge Richard Ground with Mr.

Tokunbo and Wilhelm Bourne appearing for the Crown and Mark Pettingill for the defendant.

Paul Darrell