A police officer has defended the identification process used to link Davin Dill to the 2020 murder of Joshua Rowse.

Detective Inspector Michael Redfern, who took over leadership of the investigation in 2021, told the Supreme Court yesterday that the quality of CCTV footage of the fatal attack was good enough for witnesses to properly identify him.

While Mr Redfern said experts had described the quality as “not bad”, Charles Richardson, counsel for Mr Dill, noted an e-mail from a US consultant who said the footage had “insufficient resolution to make a determination of identity”.

Mr Redfern responded that the comment was referring only to the ability to identify suspects on the footage based on their tattoos.

“The whole point was to go overseas to focus on the tattoos or markings on his arm,” Mr Redfern said.

He added that the video quality was good enough to clearly identify faces but the suspects in the case had covered their faces with shirts.

“If the suspect’s faces were not covered, we would be able to identify them,” Mr Redfern said.

He accepted that he had asked two witnesses who had identified the defendant in the video footage if they knew Mr Dill before they were shown the recordings.

Mr Dill, 24, has denied murdering Mr Rowse and the possession of a knife in a public place during an incident outside the Rubis South Shore petrol station on June 14, 2020.

CCTV footage played for the jury earlier in the trial showed Mr Rowse, 22, being chased by two men, who are accused of later stabbing him behind the petrol station. He later succumbed to his injuries.

While the faces of the suspects were covered, one witness said she was able to recognise one of the assailants as Mr Dill from his physical build and tattoos.

Another witness said he had known Mr Dill since he was a child and recognised him both by his build and the way the man in the video moved.

As the trial continued yesterday, the jury heard evidence from a pathologist who said he identified 14 incisions on the body of Mr Rowse along with a number of bruises and abrasions.

While some of the injuries were superficial, he said one of the wounds caused a tear on Mr Rowse’s heart while a second punctured his left lung.

He said the injuries caused blood to pool around his heart and in his lung while he bled from several other wounds to his chest, arms and legs, all of which likely contributed to his death.

“He was haemorrhaging and he was excited so his heart was racing a lot more than if he was at rest,” he said.

“It’s these multiple injuries coming together, the most serious being the blood accumulating around the heart.”

The trial continues.

• It is The Royal Gazette’s policy not to allow comments on stories regarding criminal court cases. This is to prevent any statements being published that may jeopardise the outcome of that case