Warning: This story discusses graphic details of domestic violence
A biological anthropologist has described fractures found on the skeleton of a Northland woman whose remains were found 15 months after she disappeared early in 2019.
Samuel Hemuera Pou on trial for the murder of Bridget Simmonds. Photo: RNZ / Sam Olley
Bridget Simmonds' former partner, Samuel Pou, is on trial in the High Court in Whangārei for murdering her - a charge he denies.
The Crown says Pou beat her and hit her with a tree branch for up to 90 minutes, then buried her body.
Professor Judith Littleton told the jury today that fractures were found across Simmonds' upper and lower limbs - some healed, some not.
Littleton referred to a photo, saying the front end of one of Simmonds' zygomatic arches in her face was also "depressed and pushed back" just behind the eye socket.
The autopsy showed she probably had a fresh fracture in her upper cheekbone when she died.
"The colouration is the major giveaway, it's a different colour to the outside of the bone. It's much whiter or much lighter in colour."
Pou's nephew To Koha Samuel Pou is also on trial, accused of helping his uncle avoid arrest and of using Simmonds' bank card after her death.