Oscar trial: cop explains how watch went missing
One of eight expensive watches in Oscar Pistorius's bedroom disappeared while the police forensics team was working in his house, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Friday.
Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock during his murder trial at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Thursday, 13 March 2014. The Paralympian pleaded not guilty to murder, although he admits killing Reeva Steenkamp by shooting her through a locked bathroom door. He mistook her for a burglar in his house, saying he made a tragic but understandable mistake. The murder trial has been compared to that of the OJ Simpson case in the United States 20 years ago. Picture: Alet Pretorius/Pool
Former commander of the Boschkop, Pretoria, police station, Colonel Giliam van Rensburg explained during Pistorius’s murder trial what the forensics team did hours after he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14 last year.
Pistorius had an open box of eight expensive watches on a speaker in his main bedroom. The inside of the lid had blood smears on it and the watches had blood spatters on them.
“I mentioned to all the forensic team that the watches are a big concern because they are very expensive.
“One of the forensic team mentioned that one of the watches, the green and black one, was worth between R50,000 and R100,000,” Van Rensburg said.
Earlier that morning Pistorius’s sister Aimee had received permission to take one of the watches and some of her brother’s clothes. She did so accompanied by police officers.
Van Rensburg said to questioning by prosecutor Gerrie Nel that while they were getting ready to leave, a Warrant Officer Van Staden came to him in the garage and told him a second watch had gone missing.
“I called everybody into the garage. We body searched everyone. We searched the bags, we searched the whole house. We even searched the vehicles of all the forensic experts. We could not find it.”
Van Rensburg subsequently opened a theft docket which was handed to the provincial commissioner’s office. The matter was still under investigation.
“I was furious and the next morning I implemented access control [to Pistorius’s house].”
Pistorius claims someone broke into his house and hid in the toilet. He shot through the toilet door, killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of February 14 last year. Van Rensburg was the first police officer on the scene.
Pistorius is accused of the premeditated murder of model and law graduate Steenkamp. He is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and two counts 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 fired a shot from his 9mm pistol through the open sunroof of a car while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
– Sapa
For more news your way
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
