Shoe print analysis comes under fire

THE manner in which shoe prints were lifted from the scene of the crime in which an elderly Theescombe couple were attacked and bludgeoned to death was hotly debated in the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday.

Warrant Officer Phillip Bekker, an expert in the forensic analysis of shoe prints at crime scenes, was being cross-examined by defence counsel Advocate Gerrit Cilliers yesterday.

Cilliers is representing Mbulelo Breakfast, 31, of Greenbushes, who with Vernol Fillis, 39, Vuyo Plaatjies, 33, also of Greenbushes, Makwenkwe Lunga Pamle, 24, Lukhanyo Bolo, 24, of Kuyga, and Zonwabo Kilani, 24, of KwaNoxolo, is charged with housebreaking with intent to rob, robbery, murder, kidnapping and rape.

According to court papers, the accused allegedly attacked George Venter, 78, and his wife Jacoba, 67, in their home on the night of May 31 or early on the morning ofJune 1 2009.