Bloody Lies

Book excerpt: This book daringly challenges one of the most controversial murder cases in recent South African history. In 2007 Fred van der Vyver was acquitted of the 2005 murder of his girlfriend Inge Lotz. He then sued the police to the highest court for malicious prosecution - and failed. In spite of the defence's trashing of the prosecution's case at the trial, brothers Thomas and Calvin Mollett provide a compelling argument of how every key element of the prosecuting evidence withstands the closest scrutiny. They use models, measurements, forensic tests, mathematical formulae and the views of experts both here and overseas. The authors show how an ornamental hammer found in Van der Vyver's vehicle, but thrown out as evidence, could match Inge's head wounds. Contrary to the claim accepted in court, they convincingly argue that a disputed fingerprint was not lifted off a drinking glass found in Inge's flat - a detail that could make all the difference. They demonstrate how blood marks on a towel could have come off the hammer, how blood stains on the floor could have been shaped by a specific shoe and how a closer look at cell phone records reveals a different choreography of movements than what was accepted by the court.