Bloody shoes ‘floor’ suspect

FARM massacre suspect Gavin Beukes could offer no explanation for the presence of potentially incriminating blood-spatter evidence on his shoes when he testified in a side hearing in his trial in the High Court in Windhoek this week.

He does not know how blood-spatter patterns that are claimed to have been found on his shoes appeared there, because he was not near any person who was shot when he was wearing those shoes at farm Kareeboomvloer between March 4 and 5 2005, Beukes (26) told Judge President Petrus Damaseb on Wednesday. Eight people were killed at Kareeboomvloer in the time that Beukes and his younger brother, Sylvester Beukes (22), were at the farm on those two days.Through his defence counsel, Winnie Christians, the younger Beukes has admitted to the Judge President in the course of the trial that he killed the eight people by shooting them.Beukes’s victims included the 32-year-old Hilma Engelbrecht, who was seven to eight months pregnant, and Engelbrecht’s two children, Christina Engelbrecht (6) and Regina Gertze (4).Gavin Beukes is however claiming that he had been tied up by his brother at the time that the killings were taking place.He was standing tied to security door in a small courtyard at the back of the farmhouse at Kareeboomvloer while the killings were going on elsewhere, Beukes stated in a plea explanation that was handed to the Judge President at the start of the trial.Beukes was being cross-examined in a trial within a trial on the admissibility of statements that he and his brother are alleged to have made to Police officers between the time of their arrest on March 6 2005 and their first court appearance on March 9 2005, when Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef referred him to previous testimony about the allegedly telltale blood-spatter patterns found on his shoes.A forensic scientist with the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia, Jaco Robberts, testified earlier in the trial that medium or high-velocity blood spatter was found on two pairs of shoes that he was asked to examine.Those were the shoes that the Beukes brothers admit they were wearing at Kareeboomvloer on the first weekend in March 2005.According to Robberts, that type of blood spatter is consistent with a scenario in which the shoes were no more than five metres away from the place where someone was, for instance, being shot in the head.Verhoef asked Beukes if he could explain how this type of blood spatter came to be present on his shoes.Beukes’s reply was that he did not know how this could happen – because he was not near any person who was shot at the farm, he said.Previously in the trial within a trial, Sylvester Beukes told the Judge President that Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus (30), the son of the owners of the farm, Justus and Elzabé Erasmus, had asked him to kill his parents and supplied him with a .38 Special revolver to do this with.According to Gavin Beukes, though, he heard of this only when he questioned his brother after their arrest, asking him why the events had happened.When the two brothers went to the farm on March 4 2005, Sylvester Beukes took a sports bag with him, he has told the court.He was carrying the .38 Special and a box of bullets for the gun in that bag, he further related.According to Gavin Beukes, though, he did not know what was in the bag that his brother took along to the farm.Beukes is claiming that he was – like his younger brother – severely assaulted by Police officers at the time of their arrest.He is denying that he told one of the Police officers, Inspector Kobie Theron, that he did not shoot anyone but only held people at gunpoint at the farm.Some of the assaults on him were triggered when he told Police officers that he was tired and preferred to answer their questions on the next day, Beukes has said.When Christians asked him yesterday why he was tired on the evening of March 6 2005 and preferred to speak to the Police later, Beukes answered: “I was tired.Horrible things happened.Things that I did not expect happened within my sight.”The trial is set to continue on Monday.Eight people were killed at Kareeboomvloer in the time that Beukes and his younger brother, Sylvester Beukes (22), were at the farm on those two days.Through his defence counsel, Winnie Christians, the younger Beukes has admitted to the Judge President in the course of the trial that he killed the eight people by shooting them.Beukes’s victims included the 32-year-old Hilma Engelbrecht, who was seven to eight months pregnant, and Engelbrecht’s two children, Christina Engelbrecht (6) and Regina Gertze (4).Gavin Beukes is however claiming that he had been tied up by his brother at the time that the killings were taking place.He was standing tied to security door in a small courtyard at the back of the farmhouse at Kareeboomvloer while the killings were going on elsewhere, Beukes stated in a plea explanation that was handed to the Judge President at the start of the trial. Beukes was being cross-examined in a trial within a trial on the admissibility of statements that he and his brother are alleged to have made to Police officers between the time of their arrest on March 6 2005 and their first court appearance on March 9 2005, when Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef referred him to previous testimony about the allegedly telltale blood-spatter patterns found on his shoes.A forensic scientist with the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia, Jaco Robberts, testified earlier in the trial that medium or high-velocity blood spatter was found on two pairs of shoes that he was asked to examine.Those were the shoes that the Beukes brothers admit they were wearing at Kareeboomvloer on the first weekend in March 2005.According to Robberts, that type of blood spatter is consistent with a scenario in which the shoes were no more than five metres away from the place where someone was, for instance, being shot in the head.Verhoef asked Beukes if he could explain how this type of blood spatter came to be present on his shoes.Beukes’s reply was that he did not know how this could happen – because he was not near any person who was shot at the farm, he said.Previously in the trial within a trial, Sylvester Beukes told the Judge President that Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus (30), the son of the owners of the farm, Justus and Elzabé Erasmus, had asked him to kill his parents and supplied him with a .38 Special revolver to do this with.According to Gavin Beukes, though, he heard of this only when he questioned his brother after their arrest, asking him why the events had happened.When the two brothers went to the farm on March 4 2005, Sylvester Beukes took a sports bag with him, he has told the court.He was carrying the .38 Special and a box of bullets for the gun in that bag, he further related.According to Gavin Beukes, though, he did not know what was in the bag that his brother took along to the farm.Beukes is claiming that he was – like his younger brother – severely assaulted by Police officers at the time of their arrest.He is denying that he told one of the Police officers, Inspector Kobie Theron, that he did not shoot anyone but only held people at gunpoint at the farm.Some of the assaults on him were triggered when he told Police officers that he was tired and preferred to answer their questions on the next day, Beukes has said.When Christians asked him yesterday why he was tired on the evening of March 6 2005 and preferred to speak to the Police later, Beukes answered: “I was tired.Horrible things happened.Things that I did not expect happened within my sight.”The trial is set to continue on Monday.