Bob Woolmer Dies

[DeeGame]

Inzamam dismisses fixing rumours



Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has denied that members of his team may have been involved in match-fixing.
Inzamam hit back at the team's critics during a news conference in Lahore, which followed their first round exit from the Cricket World Cup.

Questions have been asked about the manner of their defeats by West Indies and Ireland in the Caribbean.

"It's unfair to talk about match-fixing now after the World Cup defeats," the 37-year-old commented.

"The loss to Ireland was the most difficult day of my life. I take all the responsibility."

Inzamam accused the Pakistan media of "unnecessarily tarnishing" the team's image.

"No-one knows what the team went through after the loss to Ireland. Players live in fear of what happens if we lose. The media knows only how to attack us and not support us," he said.

Members of the Pakistan squad arrived home earlier this week to a hostile reception.

On Monday, Vice-captain Younis Khan was involved in an altercation with slogan-chanting fans in Karachi.

"Bring a donkey for him and ask him to sit on it and roam around the city," one irate fan as was quoted as shouting at the airport.

And there were further shouts of "Go to Hell" and "Shame" when four players, Shahid Afridi, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Sami and Kamran Akmal, arrived the following day.

Inzamam, meanwhile, is still hoping to continue his international career after deciding to give up the captaincy following the team's elimination from the World Cup.

Although he has retired from one-day internationals, he wants to continue playing for the team in Test matches, although that will depend on a new selection committee which has yet to be appointed after the previous three-man panel resigned.

"I took the decision to retire from one-dayers before the World Cup. One-day cricket has become a very fast game. I am only human," he explained.

Reporters were prevented from asking questions about the death of coach Bob Woolmer, who was murdered in his hotel room only hours after the match against Ireland.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cric...an/6513207.stm

Why dont i believe a word you say Inzi

[Mumsafan]

He looks a bit dodgy doesn't he?

[Red_hot]

He looks a bit dodgy doesn't he?

[Bob]

He looks a bit dodgy doesn't he?

Racial.

[lfc4ever]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1596745.ece

Experts doubtful Woolmer was strangled
Jonathan Calvert and Steven Swinford, Kingston, Jamaica

Some of Britain’s leading forensic pathologists have called for a second autopsy to examine Bob Woolmer’s death after expressing doubts about the evidence suggesting he was strangled.

The experts said the publicly available facts on the case indicated a “highly unusual” murder of a type that none of them had ever witnessed.

While accepting that Jamaican police say they have other undisclosed “factors” which point to murder, the experts believed it would be good practice to seek a second and even third opinion.

Their comments came as a four-man team of Scotland Yard detectives was this weekend preparing to travel to the West Indies to review the investigation to see if clues had been missed.

It is now two weeks into the investigation and police have yet to establish a firm motive or identify a chief suspect. Mark Shields, the deputy commissioner heading the investigation, said he was keeping an “open mind” as to whether the case was murder.

This weekend Shields said it was “likely” the killer’s face had been captured on one of two closed-circuit television cameras outside his hotel room. The murderer may also have been spotted by a chambermaid who entered Woolmer’s room twice on the morning of his death, he added.

Woolmer, 58, a former England player who managed the Pakistan cricket team, was found on the floor of his bathroom at his hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, two weeks ago today. His team had been knocked out of the cricket World Cup the day before by lowly Ireland.

Dr Ere Seshaiah, a Jamaican pathologist, initially said the cause of Woolmer’s death was “inconclusive” but changed his mind after reviewing his autopsy and concluded that the cricket coach was “manually strangled”. There are no plans at this stage for a second postmortem.

The Sunday Times has spoken to five British forensic pathologists who have studied police announcements and a photograph that shows Woolmer’s head and neck after he died.

All five were struck by the fact that there is no obvious bruising on Woolmer’s neck which would indicate he had been strangled – a fact that has been confirmed by the police.

Bill Hunt, a former president of the British Association in Forensic Medicine, who chaired a Home Office committee monitoring standards among pathologists, is one of Britain’s foremost experts on strangulation and has written a number of papers on the subject. “From what I have seen and read it is virtually impossible that this is strangulation,” he said.

He and other pathologists believed that it would have been very difficult to throttle Woolmer, a 6ft 1in former sportsman. “It is almost impossible to strangle a fit man without a fight and the police say there is no evidence of a struggle. It is virtually impossible to strangle somebody without leaving some marks on the neck.”

Victims of strangulation fight for their life and often compound the bruising and scratching around the neck by grappling with the assailant.

Hunt’s concerns about the case were shared by Chris Milroy, a professor of forensic pathology at Sheffield University; Dr Hugh White, a Home Office pathologist in the southwest; Dr Jack Crane, the state pathologist for Northern Ireland; and a fourth well-known forensic pathologist who spoke off the record. All qualified their comments by acknowledging that this may be an exceptional case but said they found it very “strange”.

Last week Shields suggested that the lack of bruising could be explained by the attacker using soft material between his arm and Woolmer’s neck. He declined to confirm speculation that this might have been a towel that was found next to the body.

However, Hunt said: “I think it unlikely the there was a ligature used, as the victim would try to pull the ligature off and there would have been marks on his neck from that. If he was strangled through a cloth material, you would expect to find the pattern of the cloth on his skin.”

White described the towel theory as “nonsense” as it would have left marks and said if an implement had been used “manual strangulation” was, in any case, the wrong terminology.

Grown men are rarely strangled as there has to be a large inequality of strength: the usual victims are children and women. Crane said: “With manual strangulation you expect to see bruising on the neck. Certainly I don’t think I have ever come across a case where there hasn’t been.”

It has been widely reported that one of the suspicious findings which indicated strangulation was a broken bone in Woolmer’s neck, possibly the hyoid. This, the experts said, was a clue but by no means conclusive. Milroy said the bone could have been broken by a fall in the bathroom, poor resuscitation, rough handling of the body or dissection during the autopsy.

The third possible indicator of strangling is petechiae, blood spots, in the victim’s eyes. It is not clear from photographs whether Woolmer had petechiae but Hunt said these can be easily misdiagnosed. “They can be caused by vomiting and or by the blood rushing to the head if the head is, say, left hanging over a bed after death,” he said.

White said toxicology tests may explain the lack of a struggle if they indicate Woolmer was drugged. But he added: “This is a big heavy man, with no bruising. I honestly have never come across a case like this.

“In this country it is mandatory to bring in a second pathologist when the initial findings are unclear and the Jamaican police really ought to do the same.”

The experts also expressed surprise at reports that Woolmer was still alive when his body was found. Police have not yet revealed the time of his death but last week two senior members of the Pakistan team told The Sunday Times that Woolmer had been unconscious when they went to his room.

“I asked them to give him oxygen but they told me he was stable, he had a pulse,” said P J Mir, the Pakistan team spokesman, who is convinced that Woolmer died of natural causes.

The experts said strangulation victims almost always died while being throttled. “It’s most unusual to have someone alive, found with a pulse. It really is,” said Milroy.

The pathologists said there may be exceptional circumstance only known to the police but cautioned that natural causes can never be ruled out in such difficult cases.

Woolmer suffered from type 2 diabetes and sudden death from a coronary thrombosis or a stroke is a complication with this condition. It is known that Woolmer reported a stomach upset on the day before his death and his team’s coach driver told The Sunday Times last week that he was coughing.

Shields said this weekend: “I have examined the evidence of the injuries to the body, and other external factors which are known to the investigation team, which satisfy me that it is murder. However, by the very nature of being a professional police officer, it is my job to keep an open mind.”

Shields admitted there was frustration with aspects of the investigation. Police are still waiting for toxicology test results and DNA evidence is a long way off.

Claims that there had been a furious row between Woolmer and the Pakistan team on the coach after the Ireland match were denied yesterday by driver Bertram Carr. “There were no arguments, no rows. They were despondent because they lost the game,” he said.

[SouthAfricaRed]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1596745.ece

Experts doubtful Woolmer was strangled
Jonathan Calvert and Steven Swinford, Kingston, Jamaica

Some of Britain’s leading forensic pathologists have called for a second autopsy to examine Bob Woolmer’s death after expressing doubts about the evidence suggesting he was strangled.

The experts said the publicly available facts on the case indicated a “highly unusual” murder of a type that none of them had ever witnessed.

While accepting that Jamaican police say they have other undisclosed “factors” which point to murder, the experts believed it would be good practice to seek a second and even third opinion.

Their comments came as a four-man team of Scotland Yard detectives was this weekend preparing to travel to the West Indies to review the investigation to see if clues had been missed.

It is now two weeks into the investigation and police have yet to establish a firm motive or identify a chief suspect. Mark Shields, the deputy commissioner heading the investigation, said he was keeping an “open mind” as to whether the case was murder.

This weekend Shields said it was “likely” the killer’s face had been captured on one of two closed-circuit television cameras outside his hotel room. The murderer may also have been spotted by a chambermaid who entered Woolmer’s room twice on the morning of his death, he added.

Woolmer, 58, a former England player who managed the Pakistan cricket team, was found on the floor of his bathroom at his hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, two weeks ago today. His team had been knocked out of the cricket World Cup the day before by lowly Ireland.

Dr Ere Seshaiah, a Jamaican pathologist, initially said the cause of Woolmer’s death was “inconclusive” but changed his mind after reviewing his autopsy and concluded that the cricket coach was “manually strangled”. There are no plans at this stage for a second postmortem.

The Sunday Times has spoken to five British forensic pathologists who have studied police announcements and a photograph that shows Woolmer’s head and neck after he died.

All five were struck by the fact that there is no obvious bruising on Woolmer’s neck which would indicate he had been strangled – a fact that has been confirmed by the police.

Bill Hunt, a former president of the British Association in Forensic Medicine, who chaired a Home Office committee monitoring standards among pathologists, is one of Britain’s foremost experts on strangulation and has written a number of papers on the subject. “From what I have seen and read it is virtually impossible that this is strangulation,” he said.

He and other pathologists believed that it would have been very difficult to throttle Woolmer, a 6ft 1in former sportsman. “It is almost impossible to strangle a fit man without a fight and the police say there is no evidence of a struggle. It is virtually impossible to strangle somebody without leaving some marks on the neck.”

Victims of strangulation fight for their life and often compound the bruising and scratching around the neck by grappling with the assailant.

Hunt’s concerns about the case were shared by Chris Milroy, a professor of forensic pathology at Sheffield University; Dr Hugh White, a Home Office pathologist in the southwest; Dr Jack Crane, the state pathologist for Northern Ireland; and a fourth well-known forensic pathologist who spoke off the record. All qualified their comments by acknowledging that this may be an exceptional case but said they found it very “strange”.

Last week Shields suggested that the lack of bruising could be explained by the attacker using soft material between his arm and Woolmer’s neck. He declined to confirm speculation that this might have been a towel that was found next to the body.

However, Hunt said: “I think it unlikely the there was a ligature used, as the victim would try to pull the ligature off and there would have been marks on his neck from that. If he was strangled through a cloth material, you would expect to find the pattern of the cloth on his skin.”

White described the towel theory as “nonsense” as it would have left marks and said if an implement had been used “manual strangulation” was, in any case, the wrong terminology.

Grown men are rarely strangled as there has to be a large inequality of strength: the usual victims are children and women. Crane said: “With manual strangulation you expect to see bruising on the neck. Certainly I don’t think I have ever come across a case where there hasn’t been.”

It has been widely reported that one of the suspicious findings which indicated strangulation was a broken bone in Woolmer’s neck, possibly the hyoid. This, the experts said, was a clue but by no means conclusive. Milroy said the bone could have been broken by a fall in the bathroom, poor resuscitation, rough handling of the body or dissection during the autopsy.

The third possible indicator of strangling is petechiae, blood spots, in the victim’s eyes. It is not clear from photographs whether Woolmer had petechiae but Hunt said these can be easily misdiagnosed. “They can be caused by vomiting and or by the blood rushing to the head if the head is, say, left hanging over a bed after death,” he said.

White said toxicology tests may explain the lack of a struggle if they indicate Woolmer was drugged. But he added: “This is a big heavy man, with no bruising. I honestly have never come across a case like this.

“In this country it is mandatory to bring in a second pathologist when the initial findings are unclear and the Jamaican police really ought to do the same.”

The experts also expressed surprise at reports that Woolmer was still alive when his body was found. Police have not yet revealed the time of his death but last week two senior members of the Pakistan team told The Sunday Times that Woolmer had been unconscious when they went to his room.

“I asked them to give him oxygen but they told me he was stable, he had a pulse,” said P J Mir, the Pakistan team spokesman, who is convinced that Woolmer died of natural causes.

The experts said strangulation victims almost always died while being throttled. “It’s most unusual to have someone alive, found with a pulse. It really is,” said Milroy.

The pathologists said there may be exceptional circumstance only known to the police but cautioned that natural causes can never be ruled out in such difficult cases.

Woolmer suffered from type 2 diabetes and sudden death from a coronary thrombosis or a stroke is a complication with this condition. It is known that Woolmer reported a stomach upset on the day before his death and his team’s coach driver told The Sunday Times last week that he was coughing.

Shields said this weekend: “I have examined the evidence of the injuries to the body, and other external factors which are known to the investigation team, which satisfy me that it is murder. However, by the very nature of being a professional police officer, it is my job to keep an open mind.”

Shields admitted there was frustration with aspects of the investigation. Police are still waiting for toxicology test results and DNA evidence is a long way off.

Claims that there had been a furious row between Woolmer and the Pakistan team on the coach after the Ireland match were denied yesterday by driver Bertram Carr. “There were no arguments, no rows. They were despondent because they lost the game,” he said.

Unless these experts have actually examined the evidence available, I find their comments strange. Surely they are not making statements on the information available in the media?

It would be very unwise of them to do that

[animal magic]

Police investigating the murder of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer have sent CCTV images to the UK for analysis, Jamaican officials have said.
Woolmer was found dead in his Kingston hotel on 18 March, the day after his side lost to Ireland in the World Cup. It is believed he was strangled.

Representatives of the UK and Pakistani police forces have been sent to Jamaica to help police with the investigation.

The ex-England batsman's body remains in Jamaica pending a coroner's inquiry.

A memorial service for Woolmer was held in Cape Town, South Africa, last week, where Woolmer's wife and two sons live - another one was held in Pakistan earlier in the week.

Police help

The footage from the Kingston hotel has been sent to Scotland Yard "for further consideration", Jamaica Police spokesman Karl Angell said without giving further details.

A team of four officers from Scotland Yard arrived in Jamaica last week to help with the inquiry, following a formal request from the Jamaican authorities.

Pakistan also sent as an observer senior police investigator Mir Zubair Mahmood, who led the investigation into the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.

He and another security official had come at the request of the Jamaican government, an official said.

Two forensic experts from Interpol, the France-based international police agency, have also been helping the investigation.

Jamaica's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields has said the foreign investigators will help with DNA analysis and also examine theories that Woolmer may have been poisoned before being strangled.

[Neil Young]

Was it only 18 March? It seems like a hundred years ago.

That's cricket though.

[captainfog]

Was it only 18 March? It seems like a hundred years ago.

That's cricket though.

[Tee]

Apparently investigators will today confirm that he was poisoned before being murdered. Panorama special on this case is on tonight.

[DeeGame]

Woolmer 'strangled after poisoning'



Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was poisoned before being strangled, apparently rendering him unable to fight back, a BBC programme claims.

Preliminary tests revealed a drug in Woolmer's system that would have incapacitated him, according to Panorama.

Programme makers said it now seems certain that as 6ft 2ins tall Woolmer was being strangled, he had already been rendered helpless, explaining how he could have been overpowered.

The final results of the toxicology tests are due to be handed back to Jamaican police next week, but are expected to confirm the preliminary findings, the investigative programme said.

The 58-year-old was found unconscious in the Pakistan team's hotel in March, a day after his side lost to Ireland in a humiliating defeat which knocked them out of the World Cup.

Details of the poison could hold a significant clue to finding his killer.

The BBC1 show said investigating officer Mark Shields, felt it would be difficult to strangle a man of Woolmer's size.

He told the BBC: "It's difficult and it's rare. A lot of force would be needed to do that. Bob Woolmer was a large man and that's why one could argue that it was an extremely strong person, or may be more than one person, but equally the lack of external injuries suggests that there might be some other factors and that's what we're looking into at the moment."

Mr Shields, the chief investigator in the murder, said last week that the "huge and complex" inquiry needed more time before naming any suspects.

Panorama will report "previously unknown" details about the crime scene, it claimed.

http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?...mentid=4811317

[Red_Al_77]

Latest pathology report is suggesting he was not strangled and died of natural causes

[Tee]

Latest pathology report is suggesting he was not strangled and died of natural causes

WTF? This is ridiculous - it seems that Mark Shields is about as useful as Inspector Clouseau. Why is it so hard to establish the cause of death?

[anfieldanfield]

So who killed him then ?

[Red_Al_77]

WTF? This is ridiculous - it seems that Mark Shields is about as useful as Inspector Clouseau. Why is it so hard to establish the cause of death?

Well I did say this on page 4