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Fungai Lupande Report Reporter
CMED (Pvt) Ltd board chairman and Nemchen (Pvt) Ltd managing director Mr Leslie John Denn, who was found dead with a bullet wound in his house in Borrowdale, Harare last year was shot from behind, a police officer has said.

The investigating officer, Knowledge Duri, whose title was not disclosed, told an inquest at the Harare Magistrates Court that there was no possibility that Mr Denn committed suicide.

Initial reports said Mr Denn shot himself on the upper torso in May last year in unclear circumstances and his body was found by his fiancée Ashton Pillary in the house.

Testifying in the ongoing inquest into his death, Duri told the court that there was blood on the carpet, yet Mr Denn’s body was found covered with a blanket on the bed.

“From my experience as a police officer and knowledge of guns, there is no possibility that the deceased could have shot himself on the floor, climbed on the bed and covered himself with a blanket.’’

“I interviewed the house maid and she said the blanket was not being used. I inquired on who covered him with the blanket and they said they don’t know.

“He was shot from the back because where the bullet entered there will be a small wound and a big wound through the exit. The small wound was at the back. I contacted the attending detail Assistant Inspector Bindu and he said they did not find the cartridge or head bullet.”

Duri said from a small firearm used, the cartridge should have been two metres away or within the body.

Harare magistrate Mr Lazini Ncube deferred the proceeding to a later date.

CID forensic and ballistic expert Detective Inspector Admire Mutizwa, who testified previously, told the court that the death was inconsistent with suicide.

He told the court that when he arrived at the crime scene, it was already tempered with.

“When an incident occur everything need to remain as it is, said Det Insp Mutizwa. The weapon was placed in a drawer. The deceased’s wounds show that the bullet exited, but we did not locate the cartridge or head bullet.”

The deceased’s fiancée Pillary has hired a lawyer, Mr Dumisani Mtombeni.

Mr Mtombeni asked Dect Insp Mutizwa if he suspected foul play and he replied that he wondered why people rushed to remove the gun.

“I wonder where the rush was coming from,” he said.

“There is no way that the cartridge could get out of the room unless someone carried it out, maybe by mistake.”

“When a person shoots himself there is a funny way their hand presents, in this case the deceased hands were at his chest. It is unusual.”