Menzieshill murder trial: Man stabbed three times, says doctor

A man allegedly murdered at a block of flats in Dundee was stabbed three times, a trial heard yesterday.

Latvian national Aldis Minakovskis, 24, denies murdering 34-year-old Aigars Upieneks on December 23 2015 at a flat in Thurso Crescent.

At the High Court in Aberdeen, forensic pathologist Dr Helen Brownlow told the trial of four puncture wounds on Mr Upieneks’ body.

She said they had been caused by three blows.

The first injury was a 260mm stab wound to the right shoulder, which Dr Brownlow said “would have contributed to death”.

She said: “It (a blade) entered the chest cavity. It had severed one of the large arteries in the lung. It also entered the main airways of the right lung.

“A litre of blood had collected in the right side of the chest.

“It would have contributed to death.”

Dr Brownlow was asked by advocate depute Stewart Ronnie to look at a knife, said to have been recovered at the scene, and she was questioned on whether it could have caused the wound.

She said: “It could have been this knife, or one of similar proportions.”

Dr Brownlow was then asked how much of the knife would have had to enter the body to cause the injury.

She said: “The vast majority, if not all of the blade length.”

The pathologist added that it would have required “above moderate force” to cause such damage.

There was another stab wound on the left shoulder of Mr Upieneks, which came out of the skin 70mm away, causing another puncture.

The third stab wound was slightly lower on the left-hand side of Mr Upieneks’ body, Dr Brownlow said.

She added that the second stab wound would not have contributed to death and the last one would have required medical attention but it would not have caused loss of life.

Photographs of Mr Upieneks’ injuries were displayed on TV screens in the court.

Dr Brownlow concluded her evidence by saying the injuries on his body did not suggest a struggle had taken place in the lead-up to his death.

The trial continues.