Oscar trial – witness grilled

Barry Roux, SC, for Pistorius, began cross-examining Michelle Burger by asking her if she believed “Oscar Pistorius lied”.

“As you stand there, as you testify in chief, you do it from the perspective that Oscar Pistorius lied in the bail application and his defence is a lie?” She replied: “I could not understand how I could clearly hear a woman scream but Mr Pistorius could not hear that.” Pistorius said he thought an intruder was in the house when he fired four shots through the door of the toilet at his home and killed Steenkamp who was inside. He was horrified to find that Steenkamp was inside.

She died on the scene.

Roux asked: “Do you believe the man?” Burger said there were four screams, that a man screamed help three times.

She said Roux should ask another question if her answer was not clear enough.

He said she either did or did not think he lied at his bail application.

She said if he said he did not hear a woman scream, then he had to explain that to the court.

Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Burger lives in Silverstreams, which is next door to Pistorius’s home Silverwoods. Her and her husband were woken by a woman’s screams, a man’s screams, then four shots.

– Sapa