The family of a Brit woman found dead in Israel today release a shocking picture of her body as they accuse the authorities of whitewashing her death.
Relatives of Julie Pearson want the world to see a picture of her, lying in her coffin, her face badly marked, cut and bruised.
The expat worker had been beaten by her boyfriend but the Israeli post-mortem found the 38-year-old died of natural causes.
The cause of death has been listed as internal bleeding but pathologists insist it was “spontaneous”, implying it was not caused by her injuries but failing to give any other reason.
The family were only informed of the result two weeks ago, almost five months after Julie’s death in the Red Sea resort of Eilat.
And they have claimed Israeli police have not properly investigated an assault on Julie by her ex-boyfriend Amjad Hatib.
Yesterday, a leading forensic pathologist said the family are right to question the findings in Israel.
Julie’s grieving mother Margaret, 62, from Kinross , told the Sunday Mail seeing Julie’s injuries after her death piled agony on their heartache, adding: “We did not want anyone to see Julie like this.
“But we feel we have no other choice but to let the world see the injuries my daughter sustained as we try to get to the truth of how Julie died.
“I haven’t been able to rest since seeing what had been done to her. The black bruises to her face and body were horrific.
“There is no way she died from natural causes.”
Hotel worker Julie, 38, from Kinross, collapsed and died on November 27 after visiting the Dolphin guest house in Eilat.
Hours earlier, she said she had been badly beaten by Hatib.
Undertakers listed marks on Julie’s body, including a large bruise to her right shoulder, bruises to her chest, elbows, arms and torso, as well as to her face.
However, after waiting for months to discover why she died, the family were stunned when British Embassy officials in Israel passed on the verdict from the Forensic Science Service in Tel Aviv.
Their post-mortem said Julie died because of “idiopathic spontaneous intraperitoneal haemorrhage (ISIH) in combination with high blood alcohol level”.
But Stuart Hamilton, of East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit, said: “If this was a member of my family, I would be asking questions about the post-mortem.
“An ‘idiopathic spontaneous intraperitoneal haemorrhage’ gives you a mechanism of why someone is dead, but it doesn’t give you a cause. Putting high blood alcohol in there also doesn’t fit and seems to be shoe-horned in."
“If this is what I found, I would think it is important to say in my report things that I have excluded.
“For example, that there is no evidence of the person being kicked, or having fallen on something. Or that I cannot explain the bleeding.
“It is an unusual thing to find a belly full of blood with no cause. ISIH is not something I would be overly happy with.
“Idiopathic means there is no apparent cause. Spontaneous means there has been a sudden or unexplained episode of bleeding into the abdomen.
“The best way to describe ISIH is that it is a very descriptive term rather than a medical cause. I would be asking what the cause was.
“What we have here is describing what’s found but not attributing an underlying cause.”
Leading Scottish forensic pathologist Professor Anthony Busuttil said: “There has been a source of bleeding that has been spontaneous. For example, that could be when an egg leaves the ovary which causes some bleeding.
“Or it could be a malformation elsewhere in the body, like the liver.
“Alcohol does two things. It increases blood pressure and the heart rate so when you start bleeding, you carry on bleeding.
“The second thing it does is thin the blood. So when someone starts bleeding, they can continue to bleed internally to damaging levels.
“The bleeding could be from blunt force trauma. But that would be induced hemorrhaging. For it to be spontaneous, it means the patient has suffered from something that wasn’t known to them.
“For alcohol to be included in the post-mortem, it means the levels would not have been social amounts. A blood alcohol test would be standard procedure.”
Witnesses have said that police were called the night before Julie died because she was being assaulted.
The family say they are haunted by the knowledge that the officers failed to take her to hospital where a doctor may have been able to spot any injury which could have prevented her death.
It has also been claimed she complained of feeling “sick and dizzy” the following day.
An ambulance was called to the guest house where Julie’s body was found but repeated attempts to resuscitate her failed and she was pronounced dead.
She had been in the process of becoming an Israeli citizen but her tourist visa had run out and technically she was there illegally.
Julie’s aunt Deborah Pearson, 55, from Blackburn, West Lothian, said: “The police investigation has been a complete shambles. I went to Eilat a few weeks ago and found witnesses the police did not even question. We have been badly let down by everyone involved in this case, they should hang their heads in shame for their failings.
“We are disgusted we’ve had to wait all this time to be told this and remain convinced Julie was murdered.
“If an Israeli citizen was killed in Scotland the way Julie was, there would be an international outcry if the death was investigated in such a shambolic way.
“We are speaking to a lawyer in Israel to launch a legal action against the police for failing Julie and will be pressing to see Hatib facing criminal charges.
“This is not over. We will not allow it to be over until we have the answers we need.”
Prime Minister David Cameron and MP Hannah Bardell have both pledged to support Julie’s family.
Israel’s deputy ambassador based in London, Eitan Na’eh, met Julie’s aunt Deborah before she flew to Eilat. She said Na’eh promised to help them get the truth.
The post-mortem on Julie’s body was carried out at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, which has been mired in controversy.
The institute was recently at the centre of claims that a Palestinian bus driver they ruled had committed suicide was the victim of a lynching.
An Israeli police spokesman said they had nothing to add to the pathologists’ report
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