Retired heating engineer Peter Seaman, who died after being struck on the head with a piece of wood during a dispute in a bus shelter in Dobwalls, suffered two separate fractures of the skull, Home Office pathologist Dr Guyan Fernando told a murder trial jury at Truro Crown Court this week.

One blow on the left side of his forehead, on which were the pattern marks of the wood wielded by 20-year-old Alec Pearn, had depressed the skull, inflicting severe injuries to the brain. The other was at the side where, in 1971, Mr Seaman, of Higher Meadow, Dobwalls, had surgery following a brain haemorrhage. A section had been temporarily removed but had healed, said the doctor.

To read more see this week's Cornish Times.