Expert counters Pistorius claim over prosthetics
Print Edition
OSCAR Pistorius was on his stumps when he smashed down a locked toilet door to reach his shot girlfriend, a South African police forensic expert said yesterday, countering the Paralympic star’s assertion he was wearing his prosthetic legs at the time.
Wielding the cricket bat in his hands, police colonel Johannes Vermuelen knelt down before swinging it at the wooden door in a court reconstruction to show the angle of the marks and to suggest they could only have been made by someone much shorter than him.
The 27-year-old double amputee is charged with the murder of model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp, whom he shot through the locked toilet door on Valentine’s Day last year.
Prosecutors want to prove that it was premeditated killing, but Pistorius says he was defending himself from what he thought was an intruder who had broken into his gated-community home in the capital of the crime-ridden country.
At his bail hearing last year, Pistorius justified shooting because of the extreme vulnerability he felt because of his disability. However, in his affidavit he stated that he had put on his prostheses before smashing down the door.
Vermuelen disagreed.
“The marks on the door are actually consistent with him not having his legs on and I suspect they must be similar to the height that he was when he fired the shots,” he told the court.
Defence advocate Barry Roux countered by suggesting that even with his legs on, Pistorius would not be swinging a bat at the same height as an able-bodied person.
Close-up photographs of the damaged door were shown in court, as well as scuffs on the cricket bat.
Pistorius’ lower limbs were amputated as a baby but he overcame the disability to become the “fastest man on no legs”, winning gold medals at both the Beijing and London Paralympics.
Prosecutors are trying to show Pistorius loved the fast life, with an unhealthy obsession for guns.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
