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South Africa - The experts speak
Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:46 am
by Iain McKie
Over the past two weeks fingerprint experts Pat Wertheim and Arie Zeelenberg and footwear impression expert William Bodziak have been giving evidence in the Fred van der Vyver trial in South Africa.
For a fascinating insight into their testimony go to:
http://www.shirleymckie.com/documents/E ... ca2doc.pdf
Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:36 am
by Pat A. Wertheim
Dear Iain,
Thank you for pointing out the link to some of the information about this case. I have been waiting for the trial to end and a verdict to be announced before posting on the case, but I have already promised Kasey that I would write an article for the "Weekly Detail" with links to formal reports, court exhibits, and trial transcripts.
In summary, this case has all the appearances of the police framing an innocent man through the use of multiple types of fabricated evidence, including footwear and fingerprint evidence. Some believe there is perjured testimony, exclupatory documents that should have been disclosed by the prosecution, and indications that the prosecutors put on witnesses knowing they would perjure themselves.
Most shocking of all is a videotaped confession of a man taking credit for the murder, in which he gives graphic, never published details that only the murderer could have known. But the allegedly fabricated evidence had already been produced and the innocent man had been arrested in a fanfare of publicity. To have dismissed the case against him and then arrested the confessor would have been extremely embarrassing to the police, so the confession was disregarded with the excuse that the man making it was a drug addict who was crazy and who couldn't possibly have done the murder.
The murder victim was Inge Lotz and the man on trial for her murder is her fiancee, Fred van der Vyver. Interested readers can learn more about the case through the blog link found in Iain's posted link above. Also, trial testimony transcripts from fingerprint and footwear experts are linked at Iain's site above. For more information, you can use internet search engines and news search engines to find an abundance of information by using the victim's or the defendant's name.
This case has the potential of becoming even more controversial than the cases of Shirley McKie, David Asbury, Alan McNamara, or Brandon Mayfield. Watch for more information in the near future.