Cop tells court of Oscar crime scene pics

Barry Roux, lawyer for paralympian Oscar Pistorius, is seen at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Monday, 17 March 2014. Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder, claiming that he believed there was an intruder hiding in a locked toilet cubicle in his home when he fired four shots into it, fatally wounding his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.Picture:Daniel Born/The Times/Pool

Barry Roux, lawyer for paralympian Oscar Pistorius, is seen at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Monday, 17 March 2014. Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder, claiming that he believed there was an intruder hiding in a locked toilet cubicle in his home when he fired four shots into it, fatally wounding his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.Picture:Daniel Born/The Times/Pool

Published Mar 17, 2014

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Pretoria - Warrant Officer Barend “Bennie” van Staden, was next on the stand, and had attended the scene a short while after Oscar Pistorius had shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp at his Silverwoods Estate home.

Van Staden was the police photographer on the crime scene, and told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that he had 21 years of experience.

He arrived at the home at 4:50am with his equipment.

He met up with former chief investigator, Hilton Botha, who told him what had happened.

Van Staden asked Botha to clear the scene of all people so he could begin his work.

He told the court that the date, time and photo number is recorded in the data of each image.

Van Staden said that several copies are made of the photos, and that storage devices containing these photos are kept in storage.

After he had started taking photos, Van Staden entered Pistorius’s garage. Here he was was alone with Pistorius and explained who he was and what his job was.

He asked Botha if Pistorius had washed his hands, which he had.

The image of the forlorn-looking Pistorius without a shirt, his shorts, prosthetic legs and arms spattered with blood was taken at 5.12am.

The last close-ups of Pistorius's prosthetics were taken much later at around 7.39am.

Minutes after the first photos of Pistorius were taken, Van Staden was already taking photos of Steenkamp's body and the blood trail leading upstairs to where the shooting had happened.

He also took a shot of Steenkamp's black vest and the hole on it.

He also conducted the photographs of the scene in the afternoon on the following day.

Once again, the mysterious marks on the side of the door to the main bedroom emerged, but it was yet to be established what caused them.

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The Star

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