I am no forensic expert: investigator

State witness Lieutenant Andre McAnda told the Northern Cape High Court on Thursday he was no forensic expert, but a forensic field worker.

 

Northern Cape Judge President Frans Kgomo was hearing evidence in the triple murder trial of a 16-year-old boy.

 

During cross examination the boy's lawyer, Willem Coetzee, referred to McAnda as a forensic expert, which McAnda asked the court to correct.

 

“I am not a forensic expert, I am a forensic field worker.”

 

Coetzee continued cross examining McAnda until tea time. He was the main forensic field worker who gathered evidence at the crime scene, on the farm Naauwhoek outside Griekwastad.

 

Northern Cape farmer Deon Steenkamp, 44, his wife Christelle, 43, and daughter Marthella, 14, were killed on April 6, 2012.

 

McAnda acknowledged that some mistakes had been made with the serial numbers of exhibits and evidence gathered.

 

He said the farm house's tiled floor was not dusted for prints because it had already been contaminated by all the people on the scene. He also did not look for additional evidence on a green jacket found near Deon Steenkamp's body.

 

Another item not investigated was a small carpet found underneath Marthella. No photos were taken of this, nor of a palm-print found on an abandoned vehicle near the farm.

 

“Any samples taken from the carpet?” asked Coetzee.

 

“No,” said McAnda.

 

Before Coetzee ended the cross examination, he asked McAnda what happened to the brown jacket found on a wooden dining table chair near a computer station. The chair was next to the womens' bodies.

 

“I tried to find the jacket,” said Coetzee, referring to documents noting the details of specific exhibits.

 

McAnda said he did not record it there.

 

“I neglected to do it.”

 

Coetzee finished his cross examination with the words: “You slipped in writing it in again.”

 

The case continues.

 

- Sapa