Ward was 'killed and decapitated'

Three people have been cleared of Julie Ward's murder

A pathologist has told an inquest that a British photographer killed while travelling in Africa had been murdered and dismembered.

The charred remains of Julie Ward, 28, from Suffolk, were found in Kenya's Masai Mara game reserve in 1988.

Professor Austin Gresham, a retired Home Office pathologist, said her head had been severed with a heavy, sharp instrument after she died.

He also dismissed a suggestion that Miss Ward had been killed by lightning.

To propose that Julie climbed up a tree after lighting a fire and was struck by lightning and fell on the fire is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. It is utter and absolute nonsense Professor Austin Gresham Pathologist

Professor Gresham told the inquest that Julie had almost certainly been murdered before being dismembered.

"It seems to me she was killed, decapitated and the body dismembered and then scattered around the place."

He said the cutting of the skull from the neck was so clean and symmetrical that it was highly unlikely that it had happened while Miss Ward was alive.

Earlier, Frank Ribeiro, a business partner of Julie Ward's father, who was helping investigate Miss Ward's death, told the inquest Mr Ward, British High Commission officials, an MI6 agent and a former Kenyan policeman were at a meeting at which a lightning hypothesis had been brought forward.

He said the policeman, David Rowe, had suggested Miss Ward may have lit a fire, climbed a tree for safety then been struck by lightning and fallen into the fire.

But Professor Gresham dismissed the possibility.

'Monstrous rubbish'

"To propose that Julie climbed up a tree after lighting a fire and was struck by lightning and fell on the fire is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

"It is utter and absolute nonsense.

"When you are struck by lightning your body doesn't fall into pieces - your legs fall off and your arms fall off and your head falls off.

"I hope that we hear no more of this lightning business. It is monstrous rubbish."

The professor told the inquest it was "difficult to speculate" about what became of Julie's other remains - he said it was possible that animals such as hyenas had crunched them to dust.

Kenyan authorities said Julie Ward had been killed by animals

The inquest, which began on Monday, heard how an initial examination of Miss Ward's leg bone and jaw bone showed they had been cut with a blunt instrument before her body was burned.

But a pathologist who first examined her remains in Nairobi said his report had been altered by his boss to give the impression that the bones had been bitten by wild animals.

Earlier, Miss Ward's father, John Ward, from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, said he had asked Kenyan Police for his daughter's skull.

"Two police officers arrived at my hotel (in Nairobi)," Mr Ward told the inquest on Tuesday.

"They had got a plastic carrier bag with them. In it is Julie's skull and tucked down the side is a death certificate."

Mr Ward said he had lost faith in Kenyan doctors and police and brought his daughter's remains to Professor Gresham at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge to be examined.

Accelerant found

He also returned to Kenya some weeks after his daughter's death to collect earth from underneath the scene of the fire so that it could be examined at a laboratory in London.

Mr Ward said forensic scientists quickly established that the soil contained petrol which had been used as an accelerant for the fire.

"This was a major find as far as we were concerned," he said.

However he could not convince police that his daughter had been murdered in spite of the evidence he presented.

The hearing continues.