The trial of an Old Etonian accused of killing a poacher in Kenya heard today that his rifle could not have been the murder weapon.

The Right Honourable Thomas Cholmondeley, sole heir to the fifth Baron Delamere, was arrested more than two years ago after telling police he had used a hunting rifle to shoot dogs he encountered with a poaching party on his family’s estate.

But his defence has tried to show that his friend, Carl “Flash” Tundo, also used a handgun that day, casting doubt on who fired the fatal shot.

Today Dr Andrew Giitwa Gachua, a forensic pathologist, said the injuries to Robert Njoya were consistent with a low or medium velocity weapon rather than a high-powered gun.

“At a near distance, 10-30m or thereabouts the injuries we expect to see from a high-velocity weapon would be more devastating,” he said. “They are no respecters of bone.”

He said the bullet would have passed straight through the body to leave an exit wound, but none was found.

A high-velocity round would also have damaged major organs in a “shock-wave effect” but no such wounds were seen during a post-mortem examination, he added.

The trial is scheduled to finish on Wednesday, August 6, when the judge - sitting without a jury which is normal in Kenya - will retire to consider his verdict.

Mr Cholmondeley is heir to one of the most famous white Kenyan families. His great-grandfather, the third Baron Delamere, arrived in Africa a century ago. He encouraged more white settlers to follow and the legend of Kenya’s Happy Valley set, famed for their hedonism, was born.

Today, the family still owns some 48,000 acres of land in the Great Rift Valley, a couple of hours drive north of the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Mr Cholmondeley was walking on the estate with Tundo, a rally driver, when they came across a party of poachers. He was carrying a hunting rifle as protection against buffalo known to be in the area, but in evidence earlier this month insisted there was no way he could have killed Mr Njoya.

The case has aroused strong passions in a country where land and ethnicity are bound up in centuries-old tensions.

Hundreds of people demonstrated outside the Delamere land when Mr Cholmondeley was arrested.

Politicians also used the funeral of Njoya to call for a Mugabe-style land grab against Kenya’s small number of white farmers.

It is the second time that Mr Cholmondeley has been accused of murder. The first case was dropped on the orders of Kenya’s Attorney General when the gangly aristocrat said he had acted in self-defence.

Now, his family fear a second acquittal would arose hostility from people with one eye on seizing their land.

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?