The forensic pathologist who testified in the Jeremiah Ruiters murder trial told the Western Cape High Court on Monday that the tot died due to “multiple injuries”.
The child’s mother Abigail Ruiters, 30, and her boyfriend Ameerudien Peters, 26, are charged with the rape and murder of little Jeremiah in June 2017.
It is alleged Peters, who was looking after the tot, raped, beat and then stabbed him to death at their Salmander Square home in Kensington.
He then took the child to the local clinic, where the boy was declared dead on arrival.
Ruiters is charged with murder and child neglect under the Children’s Act.
Dr Marna du Plessis says when she performed the autopsy on the toddler two days after his death, he was dirty and had new and healing wounds, including a severe spinal and head injury which caused bleeding on the brain.
“Transection of the lower spinal column (meaning a complete tear). Formal x-rays show multiple fractures in different phases of healing,” she testified.
At this, Ruiters burst out in tears and the court was adjournment for her to compose herself.
Peters also said he needed a few minutes.
When she continued her testimony, Dr Du Plessis detailed more of the child’s horrific injuries.
She said Jeremiah’s nose was broken so badly that his nasal bone was visible from his right
nostril.
There were also “multiple areas of fresh haemorrhage” present in his body, meaning he was severely beaten.
When asked about the cause of Jeremiah’s