A mother-of-three who was allegedly stabbed to death by her husband suffered injuries that were “not survivable”, a court heard.
Aneta Zdun, 40, died from a large sharp wound across her neck during an attack in her home on Wessex Road, Salisbury.
He has previously pleaded not guilty to both counts.
Today, December 8, the court heard evidence from a forensic pathologist who carried out the autopsies on both bodies on June 2, the day after the attack.
Dr Basil Purdue described the injuries he found on both Aneta and Nikoleta and his conclusions surrounding their cause of death.
Warning: Descriptions from the trial below are graphic and readers may find them distressing.
Aneta’s injuries
Aneta, who worked as a community support worker at Wessex Care, died from a “an incised wound across the front of the neck” which resulted in “catastrophic bleeding”.
Dr Purdue told the court this was caused by “at least three vigorous passes of a sharp instrument successfully deepening and extending the wound, so making it deeper and longer”.
Aneta’s injuries were “not survivable”.
Further cuts found on her hands suggest she had made “attempts to ward off or grab hold of a sharp instrument being wielded against her”.
Asked whether the knife recovered a short distance from the scene was compatible with the injuries she sustained, Dr Purdue said the “heavily blood stained knife” was “readily capable of being used to inflict all of the sharp injuries on Aneta.”
Nikoleta’s injuries
Zdun’s eldest daughter Nikoleta, a college student, died from a stab wound to the neck which also resulted in “catastrophic bleeding”.
“In my view effective treatment couldn’t have been brought to bear in time to save her life,” Dr Purdue said.
The teenager also suffered a stab wound close to her left collar bone which let air into the chest and caused her left lung to collapse.
Further injuries found on her hands also suggest Nikoleta had tried to defend herself.
Both Aneta and Nikoleta died as a result of their injuries, “natural diseases played no part” in their deaths, jurors heard.
He also “did not like the closeness of the relationship between Aneta and Nikoleta,” prosecutor Nicholas Haggan QC said.
Zdun claims he has “no recollection of what he did that afternoon”.
The trial continues.
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