A top American pathologist yesterday dismissed defence claims that a child, who died of horrific injuries, could have received them in a fall or during desperate attempts by doctors to revive him.

Dr. Valerie Rao, a medical examiner from Dade County, Florida, was speaking during the trial of alleged child killer Paul Christian Darrell in the Supreme Court.

Darrell, of Hamilton Parish, denies unlawfully killing his two-year-old son, D'shun Dill, on December 14, 1994.

Mark Pettingill, representing Darrell, suggested yesterday that D'shun's fatal injuries could have been caused by him slipping on a rock, landing on his bottom, and bouncing and falling forward on a protruding object.

"I could never accept this and I don't think any forensic pathologist would,'' Dr. Rao replied.

On Monday she told the seven-man, five-woman jury: "This was one of the worst cases of child abuse I've ever seen -- and I've seen many.

Dr. Rao, who has almost 20 years of experience, testified that the little boy died from blood loss and shock resulting from injuries caused by a blunt instrument.

And she told the court that tests conducted on tissue samples showed D'shun had been beaten before.

Yesterday, while demonstrating on a doll, Dr. Rao suggested how D'shun's "squashed'' bowel and injured back was caused.

She said the child was placed over the person's knees and the blows were directed to the back and buttocks.

The child, she said, would have been moving during the beating, causing the person's knees to press into the abdomen, searing D'shun's bowels.

Dr. Rao testified that the pattern she traced from the leg of the child was "consistent'' with a wooden spoon taken from Darrell's house.

She also said injuries inflicted under the child's right armpit and back could have been caused by a spoon.

In addition to vomiting, and an inability to sit, she said the child would have been crying after the beating.

"You would never have been able to calm this child down,'' she added.

And she maintained that the fatal injuries could not have been caused by a fall due to the multiplicity of the injuries.

"There's no way that you could account for all of those injuries. .. the boy had nothing (abrasions) on his hands and knees,'' she said.

Pathologist faces cross-examination in Darrell trial Cotninued from Page 1 Despite vigorous cross examination by Mr. Pettingill, Dr. Rao maintained that D'shun's fatal injuries could not have been caused by a fall.

"If there was a fall onto a rock, some part of the skin must come off,'' she said. "Because of the force needed to cause all of that internal injuries the searing of the bowel, if it was a rock, the skin would have been pierced.'' But she admitted that it was possible that a fall could have contributed to D'shun's injuries.

And she conceded that the scenario she put forth, explaining the beating, was not the only possible one.

"I can't say that the scenario posed was the only one,'' Dr. Rao said.

"There could have been a beating in the front and then a beating in the back.'' However, she refuted Mr. Pettingill's suggestions that the intense medical treatment applied to D'shun accounted for some of the boy's injuries.

"Absolutely not,'' she said. "No way. I can't accept that even one of the injuries was CPR related.'' She said the only medical injuries on D'shun were from needles to the legs, arms and to the upper chest, stemming from CPR.

"If the heart seizes,'' she added, "you can't bruise.'' Landlord George Swan, who lived above the North Shore apartment which Darrell and his girlfriend shared, testified he returned home to find Darrell "coming up from a neighbour's yard''.

"He came up to the vehicle and asked me if I could take him to the hospital 'cause his son had just had an asthma attack,'' Mr. Swan recalled. "He seemed a bit upset.'' He said Darrell returned with what appeared to be a "lifeless'' child in his arms.

"The child appeared to be lifeless,'' Mr. Swan said. "He wasn't holding onto Paul.'' While driving to the hospital, Mr. Swan said Darrell attempted to give the child CPR.

"He did make a comment `Oh Lord, please don't take this one from me too','' Mr. Swan recalled.

While at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, Mr. Swan said Darrell was pacing, hitting his fist into the palm of his hand, and doing a "lot of mumbling''.

Puisne Judge Richard Ground granted a defence request to adjourn the case until Friday.

Dr. Valerie Rao