One scream or many? Asks Oscar’s defence
Oscar Pistorius's lawyer Barry Roux on Monday asked a witness who heard the gunshots that killed Reeva Steenkamp if she heard one scream or many from a woman.
Oscar Pistorius looks on just after arriving at the high court in Pretoria, South Africa, Monday, March 3, 2014. Pistorius is charged with murder for the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentines Day in 2013. (Themba Hadebe, POOL)
As Roux was repeatedly questioning Michelle Burger in the High Court in Pretoria on her statement, in Afrikaans, that she heard “gille” (screams), prosecutor Gerrie Nel interjected.
Roux was pointing out that in her statement on what happened in the early hours of February 14 last year, he did not see the plural of the Afrikaans word “gil” (scream).
“I have to object. It is impossible to say ‘ek hoor die vrou gille’ (I hear the woman screams’),” said Nel.
Burger lives in the Silverstream Estate, about 170m from Pistorius’s home in the neighbouring Silver Woods Country Estate.
Pistorius is accused of the premeditated murder of his girlfriend, law graduate and model Steenkamp, of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and recklessly discharging a firearm in public.
His lawyers will argue that he mistook her for an intruder when he shot her through the toilet door of his home.
– Sapa
