Oscar Pistorius Trial: Week 7, Monday 5 May 2014

A new defence witness is expected to be called when paralympian Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial resumes in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday.

The defence will attempt to prove its case that Pistorius thought his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was an intruder when he shot and killed her in his Pretoria townhouse in February 14 last year.

He is accused of murdering her. The State argues he did so during an argument.

Pistorius shot four times through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking an intruder was about to emerge and attack him. Steenkamp, who was behind the door, was hit in the hip, arm, and head.

The last defence witness to be called by Barry Roux, for Pistorius, before the trial was postponed on April 17, was geologist and former police forensics analyst Roger Dixon.

He testified, among other things, about the bullet wounds Steenkamp sustained, marks on the toilet door made when Pistorius kicked it with his prosthetic leg, and when he struck it with his cricket bat to break it open and get to a dying Steenkamp.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel criticised Dixon for claiming to be an expert in fields he had no qualifications in.

The trial began on March 3.

Pistorius is also charged with three alleged contraventions of the Firearms Control Act, one of illegal possession of ammunition, and two of discharging a firearm in public.

– By