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Blood on massacre brothers’ clothes and shoes

Blood on massacre brothers’ clothes and shoes

CLOTHING and shoes that are claimed to belong to farm massacre suspects Gavin and Sylvester Beukes were found to be stained with human blood when they were forensically examined after their arrests, it was testified yesterday in the trial of the four men accused of involvement in the massacre of eight people at a Mariental district farm two years ago.

DNA evidence, blood-spatter patterns, the butt of a hand-rolled cigarette, two pairs of shoes, and two trousers took centre stage in the High Court in Windhoek when the trial of the Beukes brothers and two co-accused, Stoney Raymond Neidel (30) and Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus (29), continued for a ninth day before Judge President Petrus Damaseb yesterday. All four accused men have pleaded not guilty to all 15 charges – including eight counts of murder – that they are facing.They are accused of having been involved in the massacre of eight people – including Erasmus’s parents – and other crimes, including housebreaking, theft and armed robbery – at the farm Kareeboomvloer between Rehoboth and Kalkrand on March 4 and 5 2005.Sylvester Beukes (22), who on March 9 2005 admitted killing all eight victims.gave no explanation of his guilty plea.Gavin Beukes (25) however claimed in a plea statement that he had accompanied his brother to the farm.At the farm, his brother held him at gunpoint and tied him to a security door, and his brother then “committed all these offences on his own and forced me to assist him with the loading and transport of the items” stolen from the farm after the killings, Gavin Beukes claimed.A forensic scientist working at the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia, Jaco Robberts, testified before Judge President Damaseb yesterday.He told the court that a DNA sample was obtained from the end of a hand-rolled cigarette that was found on a table in the lounge of the farmhouse.This, together with DNA samples from the suspects before court, was sent to a Canadian laboratory for analysis.According to the results, the DNA on the cigarette butt matched Sylvester Beukes’s DNA.There is a one in 21 trillion chance that the DNA on the cigarette end could have been someone else’s, Robberts testified.Various items of clothing were also submitted to the National Forensic Science Institute in October 2005 to be tested for the presence of human blood, Robberts said.On five of these items – blue overall trousers, a blue cap, khaki trousers, a pair of black ankle-height boots, and a pair of light brown shoes – human blood was detected through chemical testing, Robberts testified.In testimony previously heard by the court, the Judge President was told that the blue overall trousers and black shoes belonged to Gavin Beukes, that the khaki trousers belonged to Sylvester Beukes, that the brown shoes also belonged to Gavin Beukes, but that his brother used to wear them, and that the blue cap was worn by both brothers.On the blue trousers, human blood was detected on the right-hand side of the crotch area of the trousers, Robberts said.On the khaki trousers, blood spots could be seen in the lower crotch area on both the left and right hand side of the garment, he said.A couple of small blood spots were detected on the inside of the cap, he added.Blood was mainly detected on the right shoe of the pair of black boots.Both black shoes also had signs of human blood on their soles, as did the soles of both brown shoes, Robberts testified.The front parts of both brown shoes had blood spots on them, he said.Robberts described the nature of the blood spots found on the upper parts of the shoes as the results of “medium- or high-velocity blood spatter”.One would expect to find such blood spatter patterns when someone has been shot, for instance, he said.In such a scenario, he added, the source of the bloodletting from which a spray of blood fell on the shoes must have been in the immediate vicinity of the shoes – not more that five metres away.In addition to medium- and high-velocity blood spatter, low-velocity blood spatter was also found on the brown shoes, Robberts said.This pattern is consistent with blood dripping on the shoes, he said.No DNA testing was done on the blood found on the shoes or clothing, so it is not known whose blood was on those items, Robberts said.He explained that this could not be done because DNA samples of some of the people killed at the farm were not available for comparison.The remains of five of the victims were burnt at the farm.The blue trousers and a T-shirt on which Robberts did not detect any blood were found lying wet in a washbasin in the Beukes brothers’ house at Rehoboth, the brothers’ defence counsel, Winnie Christians, pointed out to Robberts during cross-examination.It was possible that blood could have been transferred from the one item to the other during the washing process, and he could also not exclude the possibility that blood could have been transferred to those trousers because of the way they were packed, while still wet before the items were sent for forensic testing, Robberts said.All four accused men have pleaded not guilty to all 15 charges – including eight counts of murder – that they are facing.They are accused of having been involved in the massacre of eight people – including Erasmus’s parents – and other crimes, including housebreaking, theft and armed robbery – at the farm Kareeboomvloer between Rehoboth and Kalkrand on March 4 and 5 2005.Sylvester Beukes (22), who on March 9 2005 admitted killing all eight victims.gave no explanation of his guilty plea. Gavin Beukes (25) however claimed in a plea statement that he had accompanied his brother to the farm.At the farm, his brother held him at gunpoint and tied him to a security door, and his brother then “committed all these offences on his own and forced me to assist him with the loading and transport of the items” stolen from the farm after the killings, Gavin Beukes claimed.A forensic scientist working at the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia, Jaco Robberts, testified before Judge President Damaseb yesterday.He told the court that a DNA sample was obtained from the end of a hand-rolled cigarette that was found on a table in the lounge of the farmhouse.This, together with DNA samples from the suspects before court, was sent to a Canadian laboratory for analysis.According to the results, the DNA on the cigarette butt matched Sylvester Beukes’s DNA.There is a one in 21 trillion chance that the DNA on the cigarette end could have been someone else’s, Robberts testified.Various items of clothing were also submitted to the National Forensic Science Institute in October 2005 to be tested for the presence of human blood, Robberts said.On five of these items – blue overall trousers, a blue cap, khaki trousers, a pair of black ankle-height boots, and a pair of light brown shoes – human blood was detected through chemical testing, Robberts testified.In testimony previously heard by the court, the Judge President was told that the blue overall trousers and black shoes belonged to Gavin Beukes, that the khaki trousers belonged to Sylvester Beukes, that the brown shoes also belonged to Gavin Beukes, but that his brother used to wear them, and that the blue cap was worn by both brothers.On the blue trousers, human blood was detected on the right-hand side of the crotch area of the trousers, Robberts said.On the khaki trousers, blood spots could be seen in the lower crotch area on both the left and right hand side of the garment, he said.A couple of small blood spots were detected on the inside of the cap, he added.Blood was mainly detected on the right shoe of the pair of black boots.Both black shoes also had signs of human blood on their soles, as did the soles of both brown shoes, Robberts testified.The front parts of both brown shoes had blood spots on them, he said.Robberts described the nature of the blood spots found on the upper parts of the shoes as the results of “medium- or high-velocity blood spatter”.One would expect to find such blood spatter patterns when someone has been shot, for instance, he said.In such a scenario, he added, the source of the bloodletting from which a spray of blood fell on the shoes must have been in the immediate vicinity of the shoes – not more that five metres away.In addition to medium- and high-velocity blood spatter, low-velocity blood spatter was also found on the brown shoes, Robberts said.This pattern is consistent with blood dripping on the shoes, he said.No DNA testing was done on the blood found on the shoes or clothing, so it is not known whose blood was on those items, Robberts said.He explained that this could not be done because DNA samples of some of the people killed at the farm were not available for comparison.The remains of five of the victims were burnt at the farm.The blue trousers and a T-shirt on which Robberts did not detect any blood were found lying wet in a washbasin in the Beukes brothers’ house at Rehoboth, the brothers’ defence counsel, Winnie Christians, pointed out to Robberts during cross-examination.It was possible that blood could have been transferred from the one item to the other during the washing process, and he could also not exclude the possibility that blood could have been transferred to those trousers because of the way they were packed, while still wet before the items were sent for forensic testing, Robberts said.

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