State’s experts did our job: Roux

Defence lawyer Barry Roux is seen during closing arguments in the murder trial of paralympian Oscar Pistorius in Pretoria, Friday, 8 August 2014. Picture: Herman Verwey/Media24/Pool

Defence lawyer Barry Roux is seen during closing arguments in the murder trial of paralympian Oscar Pistorius in Pretoria, Friday, 8 August 2014. Picture: Herman Verwey/Media24/Pool

Published Aug 8, 2014

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Pretoria - Murder-accused Oscar Pistorius's lawyer on Friday told the High Court in Pretoria that the defence did not call expert witnesses because the State's witnesses had corroborated their version.

Barry Roux SC, was responding to prosecutor Gerrie Nel who on Thursday said the defence had never called an expert witness after doing decibel tests to prove that the athlete screamed like a woman.

He said Nel did not inform the defence which of the 107 witnesses on the list the State would use until it had closed its case.

“So when we cross-examined the State's witnesses we were dependent on the expert to help us. We didn't know,” Roux said.

When the list became available and the defence consulted them they realised that some of the neighbours did not hear a woman screaming but a man screaming in a high-pitched voice.

“The dependence on experts (was) not necessary. Why did the State not call them? Because they contradict the State's witnesses,” Roux said in his closing arguments.

“All we had to do was prove that it was the same time as the screaming, and that we did - it was bingo.”

Pistorius is charged with murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year.

He shot her through the locked door of his toilet at his Pretoria home.

Pistorius has denied guilt, saying he thought she was an intruder about to open the door and attack him. The State contends that he shot her during an argument and it was premeditated.

Pistorius is also charged with three contraventions of the Firearms Control Act, one of illegal possession of ammunition and two of discharging a firearm in public. He has also pleaded not guilty to these charges.

On Friday, Roux went over the timeline from that day of the shooting based on the evidence given by various witnesses.

Nel had argued on Thursday that Steenkamp ate two hours before she died and put the time at around 1am.

Roux, however, said he could not say if Steenkamp went to eat something while Pistorius was sleeping.

However, he said it was unlikely that a model and an athlete made dinner and the food was ready by 7pm but neither of them ate it and they woke up in the middle of the night and ate at 1am.

“A model and an athlete would go down to the kitchen at 1am. It simply does not make sense at all,” he said.

“She could've gone down late at night.”

He said he was not attacking anyone's integrity, referring to the witnesses.

Sapa

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