Perhaps, but which assault do you mean, specifically? The prolonged (i.e. months, years) abuse, or the abuse that occurred that night (i.e. "birefringent material")? Because then that opens up another can of worms: whether that injury was staging or not.
Userid,
Patently I'm referring to the acute sexual assault . Any prior sexual assault may or may not be linked to the acute assault.
Here is Kolar's take on this aspect of the case:
Foreign Faction by James Kolar, Excerpt
Following the meeting, Dr. Meyer returned to the morgue with Dr. Andy Sirontak, Chief of Denver Children’s Hospital Child Protection Team, so that a second opinion could be rendered on the injuries observed to the vaginal area of JonBenét. He would observe the same injuries that Dr. Meyer had noted during the autopsy protocol and concurred that a foreign object had been inserted into the opening of JonBenét’s vaginal orifice and was responsible for the acute injury witnessed at the 7:00 o’clock position.
Further inspection revealed that the hymen was shriveled and retracted, a sign that JonBenét had been subjected to some type of sexual contact prior to the date of her death.
Dr. Sirontak could not provide an opinion as to how old those injuries were or how many times JonBenét may have been assaulted and would defer to the expert opinions of other medical examiners.
The
"birefringent material")? is
cellulose, Steve Thomas in his book refers to it as a
splinter
Pefect Murder Perfect Town - Part Three: Stories within Stories, Chapter Six
Pathologists had to be consulted to determine if JonBenét’s vaginal injury had taken place before or after her death and, if it was prior, to see if penetration had come from the child herself or from another person. The police would have to track down the origin of a small amount of cellulose* that had been found in JonBenét’s vagina.
The possibility existed that it could have come from the broken paintbrush used for the ligature. The knot on the ligature that acted like a slip-knot also required more investigation.
footnote:
* Cellulose is a carbohydrate of high molecular weight that is the chief constituent of the cell walls of plants. Raw cotton is 91 percent cellulose. Other important natural sources are flax, hemp, jute, straw, and wood.
That JonBenet's cited internal injury is linked to the broken paintbrush does not preclude this injury as an attempt to obscure or stage away an
acute sexual assault, perpetrated by another individual.
Less probable but not impossible is that there was an acute sexual assault followed by another post-mortem assault/ritual using the paintbrush or any other item yielding
birefringent material or
cellulose.
The bottom line is that there was an acute sexual assault, whether this was attempted staging or both is an open question.
But the takeaway is why bother with a staged sexual assault then wipe JonBenet down and hide it beneath layers of clothing?
Even the parents would be aware Intruders do not normally wipe down and redress their victims?
So it looks to me as if the acute sexual assault came first, unless JonBenet's assailant was employing the Ted Bundy tactic of disabling his victim with a first strike hit, usually a head blow?
Either way you still have a sexual assault, and it was this that was being staged away by the parents. As any head blow was invisible to the naked eye, and was only revealed at the autopsy.
.