DNA delay is justice denied

THE suspected murder of a domestic worker at a Brakwater plot, just outside Windhoek, in September 2000 is set to remain unsolved and unpunished.

Murder suspect Johannes Paulus was pronounced not guilty by Magistrate Gert Retief in the Windhoek Regional Court last Monday when the Magistrate refused to grant the prosecution another postponement in Paulus’s long-pending and oft-delayed case. He refused the postponement after being informed that the results of genetic testing that could have been crucial to proving the prosecution’s case remained outstanding after a wait of almost a year and a half.With the results still unavailable, the end of the case against Johannes means one of two things: either that the killing of a woman has gone unpunished and a guilty man has been allowed to go free because of an unexplained delay in providing the prosecution with the evidence they needed to prove their case, or that an innocent man will have to live with the burden of having been acquitted by default only, and not entirely on the merits of the murder case.Paulus was 21 years old when he was arrested and charged with murder – an accusation that he denied – in September 2000.His alleged victim was 44-year-old Ndapanda Kambo, who was employed as a domestic worker at a smallholding at Brakwater outside Windhoek.On the morning of September 8 2000 her employer was summoned home after screams were heard from his property and a worker on a neighbouring plot had reported seeing people apparently attacking and jumping on someone at the plot.Kambo was found in her employer’s house, lying face down in a bath of scalding hot water.She was dead.At an autopsy it was found that she had died from head injuries: she had apparently been clubbed over the head with an unknown object.It was also found that she had been stabbed on the side of her face and in her right upper arm, which was also broken in the attack.With no water found in her lungs, the inference was that she was already dead when she was placed in the water-filled bath.Blood spots found outside the house, where blood-stained shearing scissors were also discovered, appeared to indicate that she had been attacked outside the house.The Police did not have direct evidence to link Paulus to the crime when his case was first postponed, in September 2002, for DNA tests to be done on apparently blood-stained clothes found in his possession.The purpose was to try to establish whether the blood matched Kambo’s genetically – something that would have gone a long way to linking Johannes with at least the place and time of the attack on her.But with the results of the tests still outstanding some 17 months after the potential evidence was first to be sent to a forensic science laboratory in Pretoria, South Africa, Magistrate Retief last week brought down the curtain on Paulus’s case.He was in custody for more than a year after his arrest, before he was released on a warning from the court.He refused the postponement after being informed that the results of genetic testing that could have been crucial to proving the prosecution’s case remained outstanding after a wait of almost a year and a half. With the results still unavailable, the end of the case against Johannes means one of two things: either that the killing of a woman has gone unpunished and a guilty man has been allowed to go free because of an unexplained delay in providing the prosecution with the evidence they needed to prove their case, or that an innocent man will have to live with the burden of having been acquitted by default only, and not entirely on the merits of the murder case. Paulus was 21 years old when he was arrested and charged with murder – an accusation that he denied – in September 2000. His alleged victim was 44-year-old Ndapanda Kambo, who was employed as a domestic worker at a smallholding at Brakwater outside Windhoek. On the morning of September 8 2000 her employer was summoned home after screams were heard from his property and a worker on a neighbouring plot had reported seeing people apparently attacking and jumping on someone at the plot. Kambo was found in her employer’s house, lying face down in a bath of scalding hot water. She was dead. At an autopsy it was found that she had died from head injuries: she had apparently been clubbed over the head with an unknown object. It was also found that she had been stabbed on the side of her face and in her right upper arm, which was also broken in the attack. With no water found in her lungs, the inference was that she was already dead when she was placed in the water-filled bath. Blood spots found outside the house, where blood-stained shearing scissors were also discovered, appeared to indicate that she had been attacked outside the house. The Police did not have direct evidence to link Paulus to the crime when his case was first postponed, in September 2002, for DNA tests to be done on apparently blood-stained clothes found in his possession. The purpose was to try to establish whether the blood matched Kambo’s genetically – something that would have gone a long way to linking Johannes with at least the place and time of the attack on her. But with the results of the tests still outstanding some 17 months after the potential evidence was first to be sent to a forensic science laboratory in Pretoria, South Africa, Magistrate Retief last week brought down the curtain on Paulus’s case. He was in custody for more than a year after his arrest, before he was released on a warning from the court.