Oscar Pistorius trial: bathroom scene reconstructed in Pretoria courtroom

 
1/2

The bathroom where Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend dead was today reconstructed in court at his murder trial.

The crime scene - including the actual toilet door through which the shots were fired - was rebuilt for the eighth day of the case.

Colonel Johannes Vermuelen, the forensic investigator who examined the scene, told the High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, that marks on the door were consistent with it being hit with a cricket bat at Pistorius’ height when he is on his stumps.

Using the bat Olympic star Pistorius claims to have used on the night of Ms Steenkamp’s death, the colonel demonstrated how it could have created two of the marks.

Reuters

The double-amputee runner said he fired four times through the door in a bathroom at his home on February 14 last year fearing that the model was an intruder.

He said he then broke the door open with a cricket bat to get to the 27-year-old model when he realised what had happened.

According to Colonel Vermuelen the marks were consistent with him not having his legs on.

This finding is at odds with what Pistorius claimed in his bail application last year, when he said that after shooting through the cubicle door, he “rushed back into the bedroom, screamed for help, and put on my prosthetic legs.”

It was only once they were on that he said he returned to the bathroom and struck it with the bat.

Colonel Vermuelen said of two of the marks: “These are indeed consistent with hitting the door or bashing the door with a cricket bat.”

He later added: “It is my understanding that Mr Pistorius was not on his legs, he was on his stumps when these marks happened.”

Read More

The door has always been viewed as crucial evidence in the case and was removed from Pistorius’ home in the hours after he shot Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day morning.

It was kept by police but later taken back to Pistorius’ Pretoria villa with their permission last year so that forensic experts working for the Olympian could examine it.

In court, it was set up to the right of the room and was surrounded by a white border. Behind it, there was a recreation of the cubicle.

The investigator told the court there was a third mark below the lock on the door. He said: “I was not able to determine that it was actually the bat that was used to create that mark.”

The trial continues.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in