A BOSCOMBE man suffered “overwhelming, crushing injuries” before he died, a forensic pathologist told a court yesterday.

Geoffrey Reed, 57, died as a result of multiple blunt force trauma, with 23 separate external injuries inflicted in the time before his death, the hearing was told.

He also had 28 rib fractures, a skull fracture and a broken neck which may have been caused by someone stamping on him or kicking him, Dr Basil Purdue added.

He said it was likely Mr Reed had been unconscious or unable to defend himself when he received many of the injuries, as these was an absence of injuries on his hands or arms which might have been caused by self-defence.

He told the court the injuries were “about as severe as it gets”, with damage to the muscles, voice box, skeleton and spinal column.

He added: “The pattern of the injuries is typical of very considerable force applied to the front of the neck.”

Mr Reed also suffered a heavy blow to the head caused by a rounded object, like a hammer, which caused a depressed fracture to his skull, Winchester Crown Court heard.

When asked where similar injuries could be seen, the doctor said: “An attack to an accident in which someone falls on something protruding or an industrial or car accident.”

However, in cross-examination, Dr Purdue said it was possible that the injury to Mr Reed’s head could have been caused by him falling and striking his head on a coffee table leg.

Defendant Stuart Raymond Ware-ham, 26, who is represented by Ian Lawrie QC, admitted punching Mr Reed in the face, but denies murdering him.

He said both the other defendants, half-brother Lee Raymond Wareham, 33, and his best friend Benjamin Henry Walter 22, were in the room when he struck Mr Reed, but he turned to look out of the window and did not see what happened to him.

Stuart Raymond Wareham des-cribed hearing “thumping sounds,” a noise that sounded like “loading a sack of spuds into a lorry,” and when he turned around, said there was “blood everywhere.”

He told the court the men had planned to roll Mr Reed’s body up in a carpet, weight it with a brick and throw it off the end of the pier, but they eventually decided to put him in a suitcase and bury him on his grandmother’s farm in Lytchett Matravers.

The victim was sentenced to 10 years in prison in February 2002 after being convicted of four offences of rape involving two vulnerable victims, one of whom was a child.

All three of the defendants plead not guilty to murdering Geoffrey Reed at his flat in Cecil Road, Boscombe in June last year.

The trial continues.