Wife killer-accused has Pistorius pathologist in defence team

A PRIVATE pathologist handpicked by Oscar Pistorius’s defence team to bolster his case has been contracted by Jason Rohde, the property mogul accused of his wife’s murder.

The 47-year-old multimillionaire appeared in the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court yesterday with a team including five lawyers, private investigators and Dr Reggie Perumal, who conducted a second postmortem on the body of Susan Rohde.

Advocate Pete Mihalik read out an extensive affidavit by his client – the chief executive of Geffen International Realty Franchises – detailing the events after Susan’s body was found at Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch on July 24.

Initially it was reported that Susan had committed suicide but after the state’s postmortem a murder docket was opened.

Rohde’s affidavit said he co-operated with police in the days leading to his arrest at his Johannesburg home early on Tuesday.

But at the same time, he had his own sleuths, including former top cop JD Kotze – who led the infamous Station Strangler case – conducting a parallel probe.

In the affidavit he revealed that, at one stage, while his legal team were with police investigators, he was at “Spier with my privately appointed investigation team”.

The couple had been attending a work function at Spier when Susan was found dead, and Rohde said their room and bathroom were still demarcated as a crime scene during his visit and his team were denied access.

In his affidavit, he said “my private investigator noted that the bathroom window of the ‘crime scene’ was in fact left wide open and anybody could gain access to the room,” he said.

“This clearly shows ‘sloppy’ and inept police work.”

He also rubbished the state’s postmortem results, claiming Perumal’s provisional report concluded that Susan took her own life.