Durban - Blood from at least one of his three alleged victims was found on jeans belonging to triple murder accused Colin Pillay, the Durban High Court heard on Monday.
Pillay is accused of the murders of Phoenix mother Jane Govindasamy and her daughters Denisha and Nikita.
According to DNA expert Captain Regina Cecilia Janse van Rensburg, blood was found on clothing that Pillay allegedly wore on the day of the incident, including a pair of jeans.
She said bloodstains were visually evident on the jeans, takkies and a jacket.
Some of the blood on the jeans tested positive for Nikita’s DNA.
Pillay, 46, who admitted at the start of the trial that he was having an affair with Govindasamy, pleaded not guilty to the murders, and theft of three cellphones and R1800 from the Govindasamy home, committed in September 2018.
CCTV footage, obtained from a boutique 100m away from the Govindasamy home, was played in court
last week, showing Pillay wiping and discarding a silver object at the
roadside.
A knife found at that spot was tested, but there was not enough DNA on it to make a definite identification.
Van Rensburg said Pillay’s DNA was found on a TV set in the Govindasamy home.
The TV, which had been mounted on the wall, was found on the floor.
Pillay’s baseball jacket had one bloodstain on the inside, but tests could not conclude whose blood it was, except that it was a female’s.
Defence attorney Amanda Hulley last week argued that police, who had handled the clothing, had not immediately placed them in evidence bags and had handled them without using gloves, raising a concern that they may have been contaminated.
Van Rensburg, however, said any evidence tampered with, or evidence bags that were not sealed, were rejected by the laboratory.
Hulley asked Van Rensburg to comment on the appearance of the bloodstains and how they would appear if they had been washed.
“The stain could discolour if washed, but DNA could still be present. Three of the stains look like smears, while one is a distinctive spot, which could be because of direct wound contact,” said Van Rensburg.