The agony of the long-distance witness
OSCAR Pistorius spent nearly 24 hours in the witness box, and by the time he stepped down on Tuesday, he looked like someone who had just completed a marathon.
The athlete is used to competing in sprints, but now, in the fight of his life, he has had to dig deeper.
No amount of training could have prepared him for the hours of crossexamination during seven days in the witness box. His performance resembled a lopsided boxing bout in which he spent 12 rounds barely hanging onto the ropes.
When prosecutor Gerrie Nel was done with Pistorius, it took defence advocate Barry Roux all of 10 minutes to re-examine his client.
Roux tried to drive home their case that Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp had been in a happy relationship and that the athlete fired four shots through his toilet door because he thought his life was in danger.
Handing Pistorius the Valentine’s Day card Steenkamp gave him, Roux tried to let his client off with a whimper. A tearful Pistorius read out Steenkamp’s final thoughts: “I think today is a good day to tell you that I love you.”
Whether this will be enough to sway the image of Pistorius as a domineering, aggressive and spiteful boyfriend is doubtful. The extent of the damage Nel inflicted on the athlete’s version of events will become clear only when both sides present their final arguments.
Roux will say his client was honest from the start. He will remind the court that Pistorius’s first words to those who arrived on the scene were that he “thought” Steenkamp was a burglar.
He will argue that Pistorius had no time to consider whether Steenkamp was behind the toilet door. Fearing for his life and vulnerable on his stumps, Pistorius had to take a “life or death” decision to protect himself and his girlfriend.
But Nel rubbished this version, presenting instead what the state believes actually happened.
“You fired four shots through the door knowing she was standing behind it,” he told the accused.
Nel said witnesses heard a woman’s bloodcurdling screams. Although Roux has claimed his client sounded like a woman when he screamed, Nel said: “They heard Reeva’s screams, not yours. They heard it while she was trying to escape from you.”
To all these accusations, Pistorius replied: “That’s not true, my lady.”
Nel argued that the couple had a row and Steenkamp fled to the toilet. An enraged Pistorius then followed her and fired four shots with the intention to kill.
State pathologist Professor Gert Saayman’s evidence will be crucial in determining the athlete’s guilt or not — and the time of the blonde FHM model’s last meal is a critical factor.
Dr Reggie Perumal, who was appointed by the defence as an expert and who was present when Saayman conducted the autopsy, will seemingly no longer be called to testify.
Saayman testified that Perumal agreed with his findings that Steenkamp ate her last meal about two hours before her death, although he also pointed out this was not an exact science.
Defence attorney Brian Webber said Perumal assisted the team as an expert consultant and denied reports that Perumal had withdrawn.
Perumal could not be reached for comment.