US expert fingers Lotz cops
2007-08-13 16:51
Cape Town - An American fingerprint expert, Pat Wertheim, says he finds it "startling " that fingerprint fabrication "goes on so much."
He on Monday accused the South African police of fabricating fingerprint evidence to secure a conviction in the Inge Lotz hammer murder.
Wertheim was the first witness called in defence of accused Fred van der Vyver, who has elected not to testify himself.
The State claims Van der Vyver bludgeoned Lotz, his student girlfriend, to death in her Stellenbosch flat in 2005.
Wertheim, who is employed by the Arizona department of public safety but gave evidence in his private capacity, told the court he had examined a "folien" or lift showing two prints of Van der Vyver's.
Police claim the prints came from a DVD cover in Lotz's flat, which, if correct, has the potential to destroy his alibi.
Smeared image was a possible lip mark
However Wertheim said the prints were "absolutely consistent" with a lift taken from a drinking glass.
Curved lines at the top and bottom of the lift could not have been produced by the straight edge of a DVD cover and matched the rim and base of an 8cm-tall glass.
The placing of the prints of Van der Vyver's left index finger and right thumb were consistent with those produced by a person who held a glass in his left hand while pouring water into it, then transferred it to his right to drink.
A smeared "stray image" near the top was a possible lip mark, consistent with a glass, but unlikely for the cover of a rented DVD.
It was his "firm scientific conclusion" that the lift could only have come from a glass.
If the police had merely confused two lifts, there should be another one on record that did in fact come from a DVD cover. There was none.
"Lift number one has all of the characteristics of fabricated fingerprint evidence and, in my opinion, is intentionally fabricated fingerprint evidence," he said.
Fingerprint never really existed
He said in a case of fabrication, the fingerprint never actually existed on the surface from which it was alleged to have come.
Unfortunately, fingerprint fabrication by police was "not so rare".
He said in a case of fabrication, the fingerprint never actually existed on the surface from which it was alleged to have come.
Fabrications had been detected and reported since the 1920s, and he had studied hundreds of reported cases, including that of a New York police lieutenant who was found to have coached five subordinates on how to fabricate prints, and another officer who fabricated prints in 70 cases.
He also said he had been instrumental in the acquittal of Scottish police constable Shirley McKie on perjury charges after her own criminal records office wrongly identified a fingerprint, placing her on a crime scene when she swore she had never been there.
- SAPA