IT WOULD be “very unlikely” for a woman who was found with a shampoo bottle inside of her to have inserted it herself, a court heard.

Prosecution expert Mr Ralph Antrum told jurors the injury suffered by Majella Lynch was “brutal” and the pain she suffered would have been “excruciating”.

He added that there were no signs the 51-year-old had regularly inserted foreign bodies inside of her because if she had, there would have been evidence such as scars which were not found by the pathologist.

Giving evidence at Winchester Crown Court, Mr Antrum, who has more than 20 years experience as a colorectal surgeon, said the insertion of the bottle, which had a diameter of 6cm, would have had to have been forceful.

He said: “Stretching a muscle from 2cm to 6cm is a considerable stretch. It’s going to cause damage.”

He explained that if a doctor is going to undertake a medical procedure using an instrument which is 4cm wide, the patient is always under general anaesthetic.

He added: “On occasion when pushing it in it is so painful that even an anaesthetised patient can jump.”

And when asked if that sized instrument could be inserted without general anaesthetic, he added: “No, it would be impossible to insert. It would be far too painful.”

He later told the court: “Inserting the whole bottle is going to be excruciating pain.”

As previously reported, the prosecution claim that Daniel McBride is responsible for inserting the bottle inside Ms Lynch, as her flat in St Mary’s Road, Southampton, in the early hours of April 18, last year, and is therefore, they claim, responsible for her murder.

The 43-year-old, of St Deny’s Road, Southampton, denies murder.

When asked by defence barrister Obe Nsube QC if the bottle could have been self-inserted, Mr Antrum added: “I think it is unlikely it would have been self-inserted and pushed up to the position where it was found at operation by the deceased.”

And when asked by prosecutor William Moseley QC how unlikely he replied “very unlikely”.

Mr Atrum also told jurors that the bottle would not have migrated itself to where it was found in the abdominal cavity and would have had to be pushed.

He added: “It would have to be pushed with some degree of force.”

The court also heard Mr Antrum explain how faecal peritonitis would develop “pretty quickly” after the injury and described the condition as “nasty” and “exceedingly serious”.

He added: “With Majella, when she was admitted to hospital she had very low blood pressure so it is pretty certain she was in septic shock, so I think that it would have taken six hours after the hole was made.”

Ms Lynch died at Southampton General Hospital two days after being found, from profound infection as a result of the damage caused by the bottle.

Proceeding.