As the family of murdered Courtney Pieters celebrated what would have been her fifth birthday on Tuesday, prosecuters in the Western Cape High Court started cross-examination of the defence’s forensic pathologist, Dr Segaran Naidoo, who claims the child had not been raped by her killer, Mortimer Saunders.
Again, images of the three-year-old’s decomposing body were shown on a big screen as State prosecutor Esmeralda Cecil went over the forensic evidence.
She asked Naidoo how he would account for Saunders’ sperm found in Courtney’s vaginal vault if she wasn’t raped.
Naidoo insisted there was no evidence, in his professional opinion, to suggest that the child was raped.
He reiterated his testimony from Monday, adding Dr. Aloysia Ogle who did the autopsy in the presence and under the watchful eye of Professor Dempers, “was too young and inexperienced and quite possibly made a mistake in her diagnosis”.
“She could have been mistaken,” Naidoo told the court.
Cecil questioned the two blue circle-like marks on Courtney’s right thigh, identified by State forensics as possibly fingertip marks, from force applied to open her legs.
He discounted this and said the marks were caused by decomposition. He could not account for the sperm found inside the child, he said, as he had not been made aware there were samples available for him to peruse.
Meanwhile, Courtney’s family handed out party packs to kids at their former home in Pluto Street, Elsies River on Tuesday and on Saturday will host a playday in her honour.