Advisory: This story contains disturbing details about a murder case.
On Jan. 3, 2018, Andrew Berry was arrested and brought to a booking room at the Saanich police station.
Forensic identification officer Sgt. Michael Duquette had prepared the room by placing brown paper on the floor and on a metal table.
The paper is used to collect and examine trace evidence, Duquette explained Wednesday at Berry’s second-degree murder trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.
The Oak Bay man is accused of killing his daughters, six-year-old Chloe and four-year-old Aubrey, at his Beach Drive apartment on Christmas Day 2017.
He has pleaded not guilty.
On Tuesday, Duquette showed the jury photographs of the crime scene. The photographs also showed a decorated Christmas tree, two Christmas stockings with nothing in them, and childish notes and drawings written to Santa Claus.
On Wednesday, Duquette showed the jury 11 photos of Berry taken by Const. Andy Harwood on the day of his arrest.
The first photograph shows Berry standing on the paper, Duquette said.
The second is a close-up of Berry’s face, including a black eye. In this photograph, Berry, who has unruly, thick brown hair and blue eyes, stares blankly into the camera. No other injuries are visible on his face.
At this point, Berry was told to take off the grey hoodie he was wearing, Duquette said. The next photograph shows Berry’s torso with hospital bandages and staples. He has a fairly large bandage placed horizontally on his neck and a cast or wrapping on his right arm.
“We did not want to injure him by pulling it off, so we left it on,” Duquette said.
Another photograph shows a series of wounds on Berry’s left chest. He had white gauze on his forearms.
Berry was asked to remove his trousers, Duquette said, and he was photographed in his undergarments and socks.
The photograph shows something attached to a finger on Berry’s left hand, which Duquette could not identify. There was a hospital bracelet on Berry’s right leg above a grey sock.
The photographs do not show any injuries to the front or back of Berry’s legs and no wounds or marks on his upper or lower back, shoulders, back of neck or buttocks.
