Doctor tells of Josie's rescue

A police surgeon told of the moment he realised Josie Russell was still alive after she and her family were savagely attacked in a country lane.

Dr Michael Parkes said in a statement he found the blood-soaked girl lying at the feet of her mother, Dr Lin Russell.

Nigel Sweeney QC, for the prosecution, read the statement yesterday to Nottingham Crown Court. Dr Parkes said he "immediately transferred" his attention to Josie when PC Richard Leivers noticed the nine-year-old stir. "She felt warm. I told the police officer to pick her up and carry her to a police van," said Dr Parkes.

Josie was operated on at King's College Hospital in London. "The surgery was successful, but it left her with intellectual impairment," Mr Sweeney said.

The court was told Josie's mother and sister, Megan, were heavily bloodstained. They had been subjected to severe and sustained violence to their heads.

Michael Stone, 41, denies the murder of Dr Russell, 41, and Megan Russell, six, and attempting to murder Josie in Cherry Garden Lane, near Chillenden, Kent, on 9 July 1996.

Witnesses told the jury that Mr Stone, of Gillingham, Kent, injected heroin five or six times a day. The trial, the second for the attack, continues.