Oscar Pistorius was perfectly sane when he fired four bullets through the locked toilet door of his bathroom, killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
These were the main findings of two reports on his mental fitness presented in the Pretoria High Court yesterday.
“The reports indicate that Pistorius, at the time of the incident, didn’t suffer from a mental illness affecting his understanding [of the difference] between right or wrong or rendering him not criminally responsible,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel said.
Although the full findings contained in the reports were not divulged, they could weaken the diagnosis of a defence expert witness, psychiatrist Professor Merryll Vorster, who testified that Pistorius had generalised anxiety disorder. She said this could have affected his ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
Pistorius’s lawyer, Barry Roux, yesterday called on the orthopaedic surgeon who amputated Pistorius’s lower legs when he was a child to testify. Dr Gerald Versfeld said that Pistorius was “incredibly vulnerable” to danger without his prosthetic legs and when trying to move on his stumps his “ability to flee or ward off danger is severely impaired”.
Versfeld said he “battles to move … He can barely turn around … He is in serious pain and when he moves on his stumps he has to hold on to things, falling often if he does not.
“In the dark, he has to rely on his visual perception as he doesn’t have the nerves in his ankles and feet to give him the perception of balance,” said Versfeld.
In his evidence Pistorius did not say that he had fallen when he made his way to the bathroom to investigate the sounds coming from it.
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Nel picked up on that.
“You said he often falls. Do you know that, on that particular night, he never fell? Did you not ask him what happened that night?
“You make claims about him being vulnerable to danger without a weapon. That he could not flee, that he is severely impaired? Why? Are you qualified to say this, especially when Pistorius himself has said he was running?
“Pistorius testified that it was pitch dark, with only a small light from the hi-fi and light switch providing illumination. In your opinion, is it possible that he would be able to move about, avoiding fans, electric cables, and not fall over?”
Versfeld replied that without light he would find it improbable.
“The most amazing thing is that he walked from his bedroom, with a gun in his hand, to the bathroom. He fired four shots and he was on his stumps and it was all in the dark,” Nel said.
Versfeld said Pistorius had not told him what happened on StValentine’s Day last year.
Roux then called acoustic engineer Ivan Lin.
His testimony, which continues today , is likely to be crucial for both the state and the defence as Roux tries to dispute the claims of state witnesses who say they heard a man and a woman arguing just before the shooting.
Lin was asked by the defence to determine the distance at which screams would be audible, and at what distance it would be possible to distinguish between male and female voices.
State witnesses Michelle Burger and her husband, Charl Johnson, testified that they heard a woman screaming before and while hearing gunshots while they were in their bedroom, which was 170m away from where Pistorius was living at the time of the shooting.
“From 170m it is highly unlikely that any screams coming from a bathroom would be audible or interpretable to the listener,” said Lin.
“But, within 80m, sounds are both audible and intelligible.”
For breaking news from court, follow reporter Tymon Smith on Twitter @oscarstrial
Twitterati’s take on Oscar
@BaziltheBulldog – So it is confirmed that Oscar is temperamental. That’s 100% temper and 0% mental.
@Nerissa Nyasha – How did they manage to get him “scared” again during their voice tests? Just wondering.
Maleshoane Phati – He does not have balance on his stumps but he can carry a fan? Desperation from defence.
Thesna Aston – My mom is physically disabled and unable to get up should she fall. She also fears criminals but doesn’t shoot when she hears noises.
Alida van Zyl – If he has so much trouble balancing, how is he able to run perfectly for 400m on blades? Doesn’t make sense to me.
Richard Garner – Dr Versfeld’s testimony is heading towards another own goal for Gerrie Nel.
@mafuzam – I really missed Gerrie Nel, my bokkie #OscarTrial
Source- Timelive