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Hannah sounded so scared I wasn't sure it was her voice on the tape, says mother
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent16 Oct 2008
THE parents of murdered schoolgirl hannah Foster today described their "rising panic" about her terrified voice on the tape of a 999 call.
They had been asked to listen to the call their 17-year-old daughter had made to try and alert the emergency operator she had been kidnapped.
But Hannah's 999 call, made secretly when she was in the vehicle of the man who was to rape and kill her, was eventually disconnected. In statements read to Winchester crown court today, Hilary and Trevor Foster confirmed the voice on the tape was their daughter's.
"Prior to listening to the recording I felt a rising panic," said Mrs Foster. "At the first listening, I heard the word Sarah quite clearly. Since I have not heard Hannah that scared, I could not be sure it was her.
"The second time I believe it was Hannah, her trying to control her panic, particularly the way she said 'Sarah'. I think it was hannah." The court heard that Hannah gave a false name to her kidnapper. Sarah is her sister's name. Mr Foster's statement said: "There was no doubt in my mind that the voice I heard in the recording was my daughter, Hannah." The body of the A-level student was found in a bramble-filled ditch at a roadside in the outskirts of Southampton in March 2003, two days after she disappeared walking home after a night out. Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, 40, a sandwich delivery driver, is accused of her murder, rape, kidnap and false imprisonment. He denies all charges.
Earlier a Home Office pathologist told the court that Hannah may have struggled and scratched at the hands of her attacker as she was strangled.
Dr Hugh White said she had suffered scratches, probably caused by brambles to her body, hands and tops of her legs. Some of these appeared to have been caused while she was alive while others occurred after death. Hannah had pin-point haemorrhages to her face and eyes which he described as classic symptoms of a neck being compressed, and a six-centimetre fingernail scratch to her neck.
"The implication is that she had been struggling. The fingernail scratch could have been the assailant or hannah herself scratching the hands of her assailant," Dr White said. There was no evidence of drugs or alcohol in her system, he said. The case continues.
