Avatar photo

By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


Oscar Trial: Footprint on door panel probed

How a footprint got onto a panel of Oscar Pistorius's toilet door came under the spotlight at his murder trial in the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.


Barry Roux, for Pistorius, explored several possibilities of how the print got onto the panel.

Pistorius broke the door down with a cricket bat after he shot Reeva Steenkamp through it, apparently thinking she was an intruder.

He argues he kicked at the door after putting his prosthetic legs on.

A photo displayed in court shows the long, narrow panel lying on the floor of Pistorius’s blood-smeared, tiled floor. About three large wooden splinters lie alongside the panel.

Forensic investigator Colonel Johannes Vermeulen told the court the footprint was on the side of the panel facing the floor.

“The mark could have been imprinted on the panel by him [Pistorius] stumbling on the panel,” Roux said, adding that he could then, somehow, have turned it over afterwards.

“That is a possibility that is on the table,” Vermeulen said.

He pointed out that the blood was smeared underneath the panel, indicating that the blood was on the floor first, and the panel was then put over it.

The door and the replica of the cubicle, complete with a toilet, cistern, and magazine rack, was set up next to the witness box in court GD.

Four bullet holes are clustered on the right side of the door, just under the keyhole. The toilet is to the left of the door.

Vermeulen is the commander of the material analysis sub-section at the forensic science laboratory.

Pistorius is accused of the premeditated murder of model and law graduate Steenkamp in his home on February 14 last year.

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 shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.

 Sapa

Read more on these topics

Oscar Pistorius Oscar Trial

For more news your way

Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.