Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius reacts in the dock during his trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Monday, 10 March 2014. Pistorius is on trial for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his suburban Pretoria home on Valentine's Day last year. He says he mistook her for an intruder. Picture:Siphiwe Sibeko/Pool
Barry Roux, for Pistorius, asked Saayman, the pathologist who conducted the post mortem on Reeva Steenkamp, to read into the court record the titles of several journals.
The bespectacled Saayman, who testified standing in the witness box, read out arcane titles such as “Frequent Feeding Delays: The Subsequent Emptying of a Gastric Meal” and “The Effects of Posture on Gastric Emptying”.
This had to do with questions over when Steenkamp had her last meal, and when she could have gone to the toilet before she was killed.
Saayman earlier said to questioning from prosecutor Gerrie Nel that he estimated having performed or supervised between 10,000 and 15,000 medico-legal post mortem exams during his 30-year career.
Pistorius is accused of the murder of his girlfriend, model and law graduate Steenkamp, on February 14 last year. She was shot in the arm, hip and head.
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.
In September 2010 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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