Day 29 started out unusually in court, with an officer asked to spell the words ‘maggot’ and ‘entomology’ for the court as his cross examination started.

The spelling test however, wasn’t just for fun, the court was told during evidence collection, several copies of exhibit lists were made, and one officer simply couldn’t spell those two words, and could identify his writing through his spelling of ‘magat’ and ‘antomology’.

Also to take the stand, the forensic officer who collected exhibits from the 1995 Karrakatta rape. He told the court it was him who incorrectly labelled one of the items as a skirt, when they were in fact shorts. After weeks of questioning other witnesses, scrutiny of the labelling of evidence, Sergeant Adam McCulloch told the court he simply made a mistake, which was rectified.

Some of the questions sent in by podcast listeners have queried whether the item was a ‘skort’, a mix between the two. However, Sgt McCulloch didn’t have an answer to that.

Another witness, a mortuary technician who helped with Ciara Glennon’s autopsy told the court in 1997, while they had some idea of hair and fibre transfer when touching a body, they didn’t have an understanding that the same could happen with DNA.

Brian Mouchmore told the court he was aware that a skin flake or hair could get onto a body without touching it, but admitted he didn’t really know mortuary instruments could transfer DNA from one part of the body to another.

As Tim Clarke explains, Mr Mouchemore was also quizzed on the length of his beard.

Join him, Natalie Bonjolo and Alison Fan as they take you through the events of day 29.

If you have any questions for the team, or any of the Claremont in Conversation guests, send them in to [email protected]

And for more on the Claremont Serial Killings trial, including Tim Clarke’s stories and the West’s live blog, head to https://thewest.com.au/news/claremont-serial-killings

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