Witness questioned on statement – Oscar Trial
A deleted phrase in a sworn statement from a witness was examined in Oscar Pistorius's murder trial in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday.
Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius walks past June, mother of Reeva Steenkamp, during his ongoing murder trial at the high court in Pretoria, Monday, 24 March 2014. Pistorius stands trial for the premeditated murder of Steenkamp in February 2013. Picture: Ihsaan Haffejee/Pool
Kenny Oldwadge, for the paralympic athlete, was asking Annette Stipp, an occupational therapist, why her reference to seeing a man walking in Pistorius’s house was deleted after she signed her sworn statement.
Stipp, whose house is near Pistorius’s in Silver Woods estate,
Pretoria, has testified to hearing screams and shouting from the athlete’s house around 3am on February 14 last year.
Pistorius is accused of the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He contends he shot her through the locked door of his toilet, thinking she was an intruder.
Asked by Oldwadge to explain why the reference to the walking man was deleted, Stipp said: “The fact that there was a man walking was not my observation.”
She added that it was corrected in consultation with the prosecution. The statement was deposed on March 18 last year.
Stipp’s husband Johan has previously testified that from the couple’s bedroom balcony he saw a person moving walking behind the frosted bathroom window of Pistorius’s house on the morning of February 14. There was light on in the bathroom at the time.
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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