Kingston: The pathologist who performed a controversial autopsy on former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer said on Wednesday that the Englishman was poisoned and then strangled.

Dr Ere Sheshiah, chief consultant pathologist of the Jamaican government, told an inquest that Woolmer “died of asphyxia due to manual strangulation associated with Cypermethrinide poisoning”.

Cypermethrin is a pesticide used frequently in countries including the UK, China, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, said Sheshiah, who had never before publicly linked Woolmer’s death to poisoning.

Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious in his Kingston hotel room on March 18, a day after Pakistan were knocked out of the World Cup in the Caribbean following an upset loss to Ireland. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital shortly after.

Sheshiah, an Indian national who has made Jamaica his home for more than 15 years, said that he never told police that the autopsy was inconclusive.

“At no time did I use the word inconclusive in any of my deliberations with the police,” Sheshiah said under cross examination by Jamaica’s director of public prosecutions Kent Pantry.

Sheshiah said that when the murder investigation was called off on June 12 he had still not received the toxicology report. “I received a faxed copy of the toxicology report on June 21, and the report concluded that a poisonous toxin was found in Mr Woolmer’s stomach,” Sheshiah said.

“I stand by my findings that Mr Woolmer was strangled and, based upon additional information which I received, he was also poisoned,” Sheshiah said. (REUTERS)