A SPECIALIST picked out a murder accused’s car on CCTV in three separate reconstructions, a court heard yesterday.

The trial of Carl Whant, 27, heard police were trying to prove Whant lied about the journey he took the night heavily pregnant teenager Nikitta Grender died.

Yesterday, Matthew Cass, a senior consultant at the Transport Research Laboratory and who specialises in identifying vehicles from CCTV, said he was called in by Gwent Police to assist on reconstructions of a journey said to have been taken by Whant through Newport in the early hours of February 5, 2011.

That was the night Miss Grender, 19, was stabbed to death before her flat was set on fire, Newport Crown Court heard.

Whant, of no fixed abode, is charged with murdering the eight-and-a-half months pregnant Miss Grender, child destruction, rape and arson. He denies all the charges.

On the night in question, Whant told police he left a house party in Corelli Street to go to his nan’s house and back.

As reported in yesterday’s Argus, police identified a vehicle matching Whant’s Ford Focus on CCTV from Chepstow Road, driving away from the city centre and not in the direction of his nan’s house.

Overnight on July 19 last year, using two dummy cars and Whant’s, officers took the cars back to the locations the Focus was caught on CCTV.

Using the same cameras, they captured the three cars in the same position as the original footage.

In each case, the cars had two window stickers arranged in slightly different positions to that of Whant’s and included a Focus which was a newer model with a different exterior trim and indicators.

In three test cases, with five different images to look at, with the exception of one case where the fifth still was lost, Mr Cass identified Whant’s car with no knowledge of which it was.

He was able to pick it out by the sticker locations on the front window, as well as a defective bulb on the rear number plate which meant one side was not well lit.

Proceeding.