Murder trial hears Northamptonshire police officer '˜may have stabbed himself'

Adrian ‘Otis’ Goldsmith, aged 50, is currently on trial for the murder of his wife Jill, aged 49, whose body was found at their home address in Wootton Hall on March 26 last 
year.

It is the prosecution’s case that Goldsmith killed his wife by hitting her with a paint pot and a large box-type battery in the porch of their home.

John Lloyd-Jones, prosecuting, said during the attack he held his wife with such force that he fractured a bone in her neck.

On the seventh day of the trial at Stafford Crown Court the jury heard evidence from Professor Guy Rutty, Home Office forensic pathologist, who carried out the post-mortem examination on Mrs Goldsmith’s body.

The court heard Professor Rutty also examined Goldsmith the day after he was arrested and detailed all his injuries, for some of which the policeman gave his own explanation.

Goldsmith told Professor Rutty he had been punched in the face, kicked in the legs and attacked with a knife.

Professor Rutty said Goldsmith told him his wife had tried to stab him in the leg and this had been a ‘game changer’ for him as he believed she was trying to kill him by hitting the main artery in his leg.

However, Professor Rutty said the main artery in the leg was in a different place to where Goldsmith said he had received a knife wound.

The pathologist said Goldsmith had a number of small ‘pock marks’ on his skin, which could have been caused by the tip of a knife.

He said Goldsmith told him these had been caused when he was grappling on the floor with his wife trying to disarm her of the knife.

But, in conclusion, Professor Rutty said he believed the wounds could also have been self-inflicted.

He said: “The wounds could have been caused by the accused on himself.

“People can cause self-harming injuries as a way of suggesting another person did them.

“I felt from the pattern of the wounds on the body they were suggestive of being self-inflicted.”

On the second day of the trial the jury were played the 999 call made by Goldsmith, who told the operator his wife had tried to kill him.

Goldsmith denies a charge of murder.

The trial continues.