Nóra Quoirin: Vanished girl's body 'showed no signs of assault'

Nóra Quoirin was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder which affects brain development

The body of a British girl who was found dead in the Malaysian jungle had no injuries to suggest she was attacked or restrained, an inquest has heard.

Nóra Quoirin, 15, was discovered dead nine days after she went missing from an eco-resort in August 2019.

A pathologist who carried out a second post-mortem examination said there were "superficial scratches" on her limbs but no "superimposed wounding".

He added it was likely she had died of natural causes.

Nóra, from Balham, south-west London, was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder that affects brain development.

She was discovered by a stream on a palm-oil plantation close to jungle resort where her family had been staying.

The 15-year-old went missing a day after her family had arrived at the resort

A post-mortem examination was carried out by Malaysian authorities the day after her body was discovered which found Nóra had died from internal bleeding probably caused by hunger and stress.

A second examination was then carried out in the UK by Dr Nathaniel Cary at the request of the family, the inquest was told.

Giving evidence via video-link, the senior consultant forensic pathologist said Nóra's body had been "severely decomposed" by the time he saw it on 28 August but he had found "no evidence of any injuries of assault or restraint".

"Scratches on the lower limbs are consistent with moving through undergrowth as are scratches on the bottoms of the feet," he said.

Dr Cary told Seremban Coroner's Court there had also been no "convincing evidence of sunburn", but added that if Nóra had been under the jungle canopy then "sunburn would not necessarily be expected".

The inquest heard the state of the 15-year-old's body had meant Dr Cary could not independently confirm a cause of death.

However, he said he was "satisfied" there was evidence of "ulceration, perforation and haemorrhage" to Nóra's intestine which could have been caused by "starvation and physiological stress"

The cause of death given by the Malaysian forensic pathologists was therefore "reasonable and well argued", he said.

In conclusion, Dr Cary said the cause of death was straightforward to him, but the difficulty in this case was the circumstances of the death.

The inquest continues.