Injuries to Dooley 'As Bad as it Gets,' Pathologist Says

By Jane Gadd
Originally published in The Globe and Mail , March 2, 2002

A pathologist who has conducted at least 2,000 autopsies on children testified yesterday that the injuries covering Randal Dooley from head to toe were the worst he has ever seen.

"I think this is as bad as it gets," Dr. Charles Smith said grimly when asked by prosecutor Rita Zaied to comment on the condition of the body of seven-year-old Randal, whose father and stepmother are accused of killing the boy in September, 1998.

Showing jurors a slide presentation of dozens of scars and fresh wounds he saw on the emaciated child's frame during an autopsy, Dr. Smith said the injuries were so numerous that they were impossible to count.

"It is hard to see where one ends and another one begins," Dr. Smith said.

Also, there were "injuries superimposed on top of injuries," so that single marks might have been left by repeated injury to the same spot.

The only areas of Randal's body that were not covered with scars or wounds were the palms of his hands, the soles of his feet and his scalp, the pathologist testified.

Edward and Marcia Dooley are charged with second-degree murder in the death of Randal, who according to Dr. Smith had likely been dead for several hours by the time Mr. Dooley placed a 911 call to report his son was not breathing and was stiff.

The jury has heard from Randal's 11-year-old brother, Teego, that Mrs. Dooley had punched, elbowed, stomped on and whipped the boy in the last days of his life.

It has also heard Mr. Dooley admit in a police videotape that he flogged the boy with a belt a few weeks before the child died.

Dr. Smith said he saw injuries that were hours old, days old and weeks old when he examined Randal's body at the Hospital for Sick Children on Sept. 26, 1998.

Dr. Smith returns to the witness box on Monday.