OK - I have FINALLY caught up with the threads! And what a great job everyone has been doing - a lot of very pertinent and insightful comments from all angles.
Now, I've just had a look at those photos (well, the five that I found at Marly's link anyway), and for whatever it's worth, my impressions are as follows:
1. Face - fingernail scratches/gouges. No question. Definitely NOT shaving-related.
2. Left side of neck lower down - same: fingernails, either through material (eg shirt) or last gasp with little strength left
3. Right axilla (armpit) - looks to me like material or strapping has rubbed or abraded that area, much as a very heavy backpack strap would. One possibility is that somebody was grabbing him by the shirt and gave it a good old heave-ho up under the armpit - like a violent wedgie under the arm but pulling the shirt up and over at the same time.
4. Left front chest - not so sure just WHAT to make of that one. I have seen abrasions like that from impact through material, or possibly by rubbing with something abrasive. But - and I hate to say this - I have also seen that sort of abrasion/rash appearance in people who HAVE scratched themselves silly after eg sandfly bites or other intense itch. I have even seen one person who had rubbed his skin to look almost identical to that lesion on GBC's left chest by scratching an intense itch with a hairbrush. It was on the patient's leg, and resulted in an ulcer that took months to heal up after it got infected. Not clean things, those hair brushes! So my impression on that lesion is inconclusive, I'd have to say. The other thing that can look like that is a VERY severe shaving rash.... Maybe Allison attacked him with his vicious razor? (sorry - tongue in cheek comment there)
5. The yellowing bruise on the front of his chest - that looks several days old - as in - MANY days (7-10 days perhaps?) so could have resulted from an earlier fight, a kick, or even horseplay with the kids. Or falling onto something - eg a bedpost...? But it certainly seems several days older than the more acute abrasions and scratches.
His face does have the sort of skin that would result in nicks and scratches from shaving with a razor (as opposed to electric shaver) BUT those nicks would in the main be punctate - like the tops taken off little skin bumps etc. NOTHING at all like those fingernail scratches - calling them for what I'm convinced those are.
So - don't know how much value my impressions are, given that various pathologists and forensic experts have examined these in detail already, but these thoughts are just what come to mind on my first sight of the pictures.
