Cape Town - Hillary van Rooyen, an Eversdal accountancy tutor, was probably hit from behind, on the left side of her head, causing skull fractures and haemorrhages under the scalp and tearing the brain. The injuries sent her body into shock, the Western Cape High Court heard on Tuesday.
Forensic pathologist Dr Daphne Anthony detailed the injuries sustained by Van Rooyen on May 9 last year. The autopsy was done six days later. “The cause of death is consistent with blunt-force trauma and the consequences thereof,” said Anthony.
“Her face was covered in blood and her hair soaked in blood. She had a laceration surrounded by abrasions on the left-back side of her scalp that was consistent with blunt force. The object went through her hair to her scalp,” she said.
Van Rooyen sustained contusions on the left eye that extended to the left cheek, which could have been caused by trauma to the eye by a blunt object.
“Her survival period wasn’t long enough for skull bleeding to go through to her airways,” she said.
Anthony suggested Van Rooyen was hit while her head was bent, coming from behind the left side, causing her to fall and sustain an indentation to her right forehead and skull.
Van Rooyen was allegedly murdered by her son’s friend, Reghard Groenewald.
Groenewald admitted to the court that he dealt two blows to her head with a vase. He said he hit her to protect himself from her sexual advances.
Groenewald pleaded not guilty to murder, theft and robbery charges.
Judge Derek Wille asked Anthony whether the plea was in line with her findings.
“The fact that she was in a low,-down position fits in with the left-back injury to the head, but it is highly unlikely that she would have so much bruising on the left side of her cheek. The bruising can’t be from falling on her face,” she said.