Cape Town - The discrepancies in the evidence received in the murder trial of Henri van Breda came under scrutiny in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
Day 33 of the family murder trial got underway as Warrant Officer Lorraine Nel, who received the van Breda exhibits at the SAPS forensic laboratory, was called to give evidence, despite not being on the witness list that state lawyer Susan Galloway had submitted.
Defence advocate Pieter Botha had requested Nel give evidence as he had felt that there were discrepancies in the evidence that had been received, and the evidence that was submitted.
Galloway initially questioned Nel about the discrepancy, to which Nel answered that as soon as she noticed the discrepancy, she noted it in her case file and contacted a Local Criminal Record Centre member to sort it out.
She added that discrepancies between what she received and what was actually in the evidence, were noted in a covering letter.
Botha then cross-questioned Nel about the standard operating procedure involved in cataloging and labeling of evidence.
Nel revealed that the guard on a swab used to testing for blood in Henri's bathroom shower was not sealed – although the bag in which it was contained was. “This exhibit was not sealed‚” she said.
Nel said she received the evidence in a sealed state but within the bag, the swab guard itself was not sealed.
The blood in the shower came under the spotlight last week when chief forensic analyst at the police's forensic laboratory, Lieutenant-Colonel Sharlene Otto revealed that the evidence found in the corner of shower matched the DNA profiles of Rudi and Henri and possibly their mother Teresa.
Otto revealed on Friday that in instances of a mixed result, since Rudi and Henri share 50% of their DNA with their mother, Otto couldn’t unequivocally state that the DNA just belonged to two or three people.
Just because three profiles matched the sample that was tested, it didn’t mean that three people were necessarily there.
Otto also said she also couldn't unequivocally state the evidence from the shower was indeed blood.