No detailed rehash of evidence – Judge Thokozile Masipa

“It shall not be possible, nor will it serve any purpose, to rehash the evidence in detail,” she said in the High Court in Pretoria.

She said three issues arose during the trial, but that these had subsequently lost their importance. The three were possible police contamination of the crime scene, the length of the extension cord that disappeared from Pistorius’s bedroom subsequent to his killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, and the authenticity of police crime scene photos.

“These issues have paled into insignificance in light of the rest of the evidence,” she said.

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As she read, her two assessors, Themba Mazibuko and Janette Henzen-du Toit, sat quietly on either side of her. Apart from Masipa’s voice the only other sounds in court GD were the ticking of laptop keyboards, and someone occasionally clearing their throat.

Pistorius sat still, but appeared to cry quietly when Masipa began describing Steenkamp’s fatal injuries.

Pistorius is accused of murdering Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse on February 14 last year. He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to emerge and attack him. She was hit in the hip, arm, and head.

The paralympian also faces three charges of contravening 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

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