Leonor Cipriano: Doctor excludes fall

Leonor Cipriano: Doctor excludes fall

Expert says that lesions were not caused by fall from stairs

This Tuesday, at the Court of Faro, an expert forensics doctor has excluded the hypothesis of Leonor Cipriano falling off the stairs, a theory that could explain the alleged aggressions on the face and body of the assistant in this process.

“Those lesions [some of Leonor Cipriano’s lesions that can be observed on photographs that are part of the process] are not caused by a fall from stairs. It would be very difficult for lesions on the face and in the abdominal area to occur if this was a fall from the stairs”, stated Teresa Magalhães, the director of the Northern delegation of the National Institute for Forensics Medicine, and a member of the directors’ board.

When questioned by the Public Ministry, the expert went as far as admitting that some of the lesions, due to their distribution on the body, where “suggestive of kicks and punches” and that with a fall from stairs “there would be more lesions to the back and to the hands” and less lesions to the eyes, because they are better protected.

During the technical scientific consult, that was requested by the Court of Faro, and which the expert carried out based on the photographs where Leonor Cipriano can be seen with lesions on several areas of her face and body, Teresa Magalhães has also mentioned that the ecchymoses (commonly known as black bruises) were caused “at least on two different moments”.

“The lesions to the arm look older than those on the eyes and abdomen, which don’t look older than two days”, the expert stated, nevertheless adding that the “photograph is worth what it is worth”, that images “are never a rigorous element” and that these are “virtual images of what happened” in reality.


source: TVI24, 24.03.2009


By Joana Morais

Does this mean that the detectives beat her on 2 different occasions or that she was beaten in prison by prisoners? I think the latter is the case.