Witness heard ‘terrified screaming’ – Oscar Trial
A woman who lives near Oscar Pistorius's house heard a woman's "terrified screaming" in the early morning hours when Reeva Steenkamp was killed, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Monday.
FILE PICTURE: State prosecutor Gerrie Nel speaks during the Oscar Pistorius murder trial at the high court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, 19 March 2014. Pistorius is charged with murder for the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentines Day in 2013. Picture: Themba Hadebe/Pool
“Moments after the shots I heard a lady screaming. Terrified, terrified screaming,” Annette Stipp said to questioning from prosecutor Gerrie Nel.
She was testifying in Pistorius’s trial.
He is accused of the premeditated murder of Steenkamp in his Silver Woods Estate, Pretoria, townhouse on February 14 last year. Pistorius contends he shot her through the locked door of his toilet, thinking she was an intruder.
Stipp, an occupational therapist, said she was unable to sleep as she was feeling “flu-ish”. She looked at the clock radio and saw it was 3.02am and was about to get up to drink water.
“As I was getting up I heard what sounded to me like gunshots.”
Stipp is married to radiologist Johan Stipp, who testified in the first week of the trial.
She said she could see lights on in the house the screams were coming from. The Stipps’ bedroom balcony looks out at Pistorius’s bathroom window.
Pistorius has said, in his bail application statement, that the lights were off in his house.
Pistorius has been charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp and 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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