The lawyer who claims scientists botched their forensic tests while probing an armed holdup at the Pukekohe TAB has produced his own DNA expert in a bid to refute their findings.
Defence lawyer Roy Wade alleges that scientists at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) mislabelled a crucial blood sample and erred while making other tests.
Two of the scientists, Simon Walsh and Marmix Kelderman, maintain that their findings are reliable. But an Auckland District Court jury yesterday heard a forensic expert with 25 years' experience say he was concerned and surprised at aspects of the testing.
The dispute relates to 13 samples of blood, saliva and hair taken after two men raided the TAB on January 29 last year and bashed the operator with a shotgun.
Two unemployed men, John Lee Kaire, aged 31, from Meremere, and William Kapea, 24, from Manurewa, are charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated assault and unlawfully taking a motor vehicle.
Mr Wade said the brunt of the evidence against his client, Kapea, was that his DNA matched blood taken from a purple T-shirt said to have been discarded during the getaway.
He called Christchurch forensics consultant and former ESR scientist Dr Peter Cropp, who said he had checked the forensic tests and had some of the samples re-examined.
Dr Cropp said the Kapea sample was the only one of the 13 that was not ticked off in testing papers, and was processed separately from the other 12. He found a question mark written on top of the small tube next to its testing number, 570-E05. He believed the original label had been rubbed off.
"That really did concern me," Dr Cropp said. "It indicates that there has been a mixup or contamination in the lab, or that the tube has been misidentified."
Dr Cropp said he was also "extremely surprised" that the ESR had lifted DNA from a small blood-spot, but failed to find any on heavily bloodstained pants.
Mr Wade said: "We know that very peculiar things happened as it went through the lab. It did not go through with the other evidence, and there is that critical little mark, that question mark, that shows a technician was plainly troubled."
Defence calls DNA expert
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