THE police who probed Dibuseng Lefatle's murder blundered so much that they did not check if the alleged killer's confession corresponded with physical evidence.

Sonnyboy Nobela, 34, is accused of raping and killing Lefatle and leaving her body in an open veld in Kagiso in 2008. She was a student at his driving school.

Nobela wrote in his confession statement that he dragged the 24-year-old to a stadium, where he raped and killed her. He also said she was wearing black pants and a floral shirt and that he had stabbed her two times on the stomach.

But, pictures taken by the police at the crime scene show that Lefatle was killed in an open veld.

The pictures show her wearing blue jeans and a green top. Postmortem pictures show that she was stabbed below one breast.

Asked by the defence to explain the contradictions by the defence Colonel Moabi Modise admitted to not having read the confession immediately after it was recorded but being told about the confession.

"I supervised the investigation and had contact with the investigating officer on a daily basis.

"I was not there but I knew that he had been taken to Germiston police station, that he was arrested for murder and had already confessed to Colonel Nkorane," he said.

Modise was also quizzed about why there were two different pictures of the crime scene, one showing flat ground and another showing bush.

"The pictures were not taken on the same day and they were not taken by the same photographer," he said

Nobela has applied for the confession to be thrown out of court, saying it was not made freely and voluntarily.

Modise said a new investigating officer was appointed in the case after the family complained about progress and the provincial office intervened.

He also admitted that they had no evidence linking Nobela to the crime until the victim's father, Strike Lefatle, told them he suspected him and complained about the progress of the case.