WREN Bowell is 2. At her home in Peasedown St John, Somerset, she was racing to show her parents a picture she had just drawn. She tripped over a stair gate. The pencil she was holding – wince now – entered her eye. The pencil passed though her skull and went 1 1/2in into the frontal lobe of her brain.

Wisely, her parents did not fiddle with the pencil. They called 999. After an operation lasting four hours at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, Wren is recovered.

Medics removed a section of Wren’s skull with the pencil. Plastic plates and biodegradable screws repaired the skull.

Hideous stuff. Add it to the gallery:

Nails

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Chen Liu, who was also known as Anthony, had 30 nails gunned into his head. His body was found in Sydney. Mr Liu was bound with electrical wires and an extension cord and then rolled in a domestic rug with the ends neatly tucked in, which was then tied with three pieces of wire. “In 36 years of investigation, I’ve never come across a murder of this nature using a nail gun. May I say it’s a particularly brutal and vicious murder and we are seeking information from the public so we can bring this inquiry to a conclusion,” the head of the homicide squad, Geoff Beresford, said.