Oscar cannot explain stomach contents

“It is devastating for your version that eight hours after she was killed there was still that amount of food in her stomach,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel told Pistorius during cross-examination in the High Court in Pretoria.

Pistorius is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

“I don’t have an explanation for it,” Pistorius replied.

“Professor Botha has testified that after six hours people would expect the stomach contents to be clear. We are talking about eight,” said Nel.

“She must have eaten within two hours of her death,” he added.

Pistorius insisted the couple ate around 7pm on February 13 last year and went to bed soon after. She was killed around 3am the following morning.

“Why would there still be food in the stomach?”

“I’m not sure My Lady,” Pistorius said.

“Because you were awake,” said Nel.

Pistorius then conceded that “it’s a possibility” that she could have eaten after 7pm, but later added that this was “highly improbable”.

Pistorius is accused of the murder of Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse which, according to the State, happened during an argument.

He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to come out and attack him.

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

He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013. On September 30, 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.

– Sapa