Police photographer testifies – Oscar Trial
Oscar Pistorius's murder trial became a recital of numbers as a police photographer, who took pictures at the scene of Reeva Steenkamp's death, testified in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday.
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Monday, 17 March 2014. Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder, claiming that he believed there was an intruder hiding in a locked toilet cubicle in his home when he fired four shots into it, fatally wounding his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.Picture:Daniel Born/Pool
Warrant Officer Barend van Staden told prosecutor Gerrie Nel at exactly what times he took photos showing a trail of blood spatters leading through Pistorius’s home.
Pistorius is charged with the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Steenkamp. He shot her through the closed door of his toilet, apparently believing she was an intruder.
Nel read out the number of each photo, which was displayed on screens around the court, and Van Staden replied with the time it was taken.
Photo 132 was taken at 5.24am. The screens around the court showed only white, but the caption was still visible.
“Place and position of the deceased,” it reads.
Photo 152, taken at 5.35am, shows the “wounds on the right side of the deceased”, and number 153 the wounds “on the back of the deceased”.
None of these were shown on the screens, but could be glimpsed as Van Staden paged through the file in front of him.
Van Staden had earlier taken photos of a topless and shocked-looking Pistorius, wearing a pair of blood-soaked shorts and his blood-smeared prosthetic legs.
They were taken in his garage at 5.12am.
Van Staden is attached to the photography section of the Local Criminal Record Centre. He had been with the centre for 12 years, and in the police for 21.
In addition to the murder charge, Pistorius is charged with contraventions of the Firearms Control Act. 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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