Oscar Pistorius repeatedly vomited in the dock today as the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem on Reeva Steenkamp gave a graphic account of her injuries.
The Paralympian retched into a bucket numerous times as Professor Gert Saayman gave harrowing testimony about the multiple bullet wounds he admits inflicting on his girlfriend.
Prof Saayman told the court how Miss Steenkamp was struck four times – on the top right of the head, in the right elbow, in the right hip and also in the webbing of her left hand.
He said the bullets used were designed to ‘expand and mushroom’ to cause maximum damage.
The model and law graduate sustained injuries from fragments from the bullets, door and from her own bone, he added.
He said Miss Steenkamp had been wearing grey Nike shorts and a sleeveless black vest at the time.
As the details were read out, the court was forced to adjourn twice as Pistorius broke down, his shoulders visibly shaking.
The judge questioned whether he was well enough to stay in court, but his lawyer Barry Roux insisted the athlete wanted the evidence to continue as a break would not help his state of mind.
After lunch, his vomiting intensified and could be heard through the courtroom, according to reporters present in the trial.
Earlier, Judge Thokozile Masipa had banned live broadcasting and tweeting of evidence by Prof Saayman, head of the forensic medicine department at the University of Pretoria, because of the nature of his evidence.
She announced the ban after prosecutor Gerrie Nel, supported by chief defence lawyer Barry Roux, said Prof Saayman’s testimony would have an ‘explicitly graphic nature’ and should not be shown around the world.
‘It’s not a question of press freedom,’ Mr Nel said.
Prof Saayman said the ‘very personal nature’ of his autopsy findings as well as graphic details about the injuries could ‘compromise the dignity of the deceased’ as well as harm her friends and family, if they are broadcast.
‘It goes against the good morals of society for us to make information of this nature available’ in a way that children and other unsuspecting people might be exposed, Saayman said in the witness box.
Proceedings can be partly televised and the audio can be broadcast in its entirety under a judge’s pre-trial order which sought to balance the right to a fair trial with the intense public interest in the Pistorius case and the principle of open justice.
Under the order, some witnesses can choose not to be shown on television.
Earlier today, Judge Thokozile Masipa extended that order, saying ‘private witnesses are more vulnerable than public figures’ and that still photographs of witnesses who requested some discretion cannot be published or disseminated for the duration of the trial, even if they were obtained from sources outside the courtroom.
The new ruling followed the publication in a South African media outlet last week of a photo of a witness whose image was lifted from a publicly accessible website.
Pistorius, the first amputee to run in the Olympics, is charged with premeditated murder over Ms Steenkamp’s death.
The 27-year-old claims the killing was accidental because he thought his girlfriend was a dangerous intruder in a toilet cubicle in his home.
Before today’s adjournment, a security guard who said he spoke with Pistorius soon after the shooting on Valentine’s Day last year was questioned by the defence about his recollection of the sequence of events that night.
The sequence is important for the defence because, if it can prove that Pistorius called security first, it could support the contention that he was seeking help as quickly as possible.
The guard, Pieter Baba, had recalled a conversation with the double-amputee runner, who killed Ms Steenkamp in his home in the early hours of February 14 2013.
Mr Baba testified on Friday that he called Pistorius and was told on the telephone that ‘everything is fine’.
He said Pistorius called him back moments later, did not speak and was crying, and the second call then ended.
Mr Baba said he was responding to neighbours’ reports of gunshots coming from Pistorius’s home after 3am. He drove with a fellow guard to Pistorius’s villa and made the call from outside the house.
Mr Baba’s statement that he called Pistorius first could back the prosecution’s case that the killing was premeditated, and that Pistorius was trying, at least initially, to conceal what he had done.
Today, however, Mr Roux said call records showed that Pistorius called security first, but could not speak because he was ‘indeed crying’.
‘I’m the one who called him first,’ Mr Baba insisted.
‘His call was first and your call was second,’ countered Mr Roux, saying he had documents, including one from the police, which showed his assertion to be true.
‘I put proof in front of you that Mr Pistorius called first,’ Mr Roux said. He said Pistorius had called before the guards went to his house.
‘If Mr Pistorius called me first, then I would have known that something was wrong at his house,’ Mr Baba replied, repeating his version.
On Friday, his ex-girlfriend told the court about an occasion when Pistorius shot through a car sunroof at a traffic light after a confrontation with police.
The Olympian was furious after an officer took his Glock pistol and emptied its chamber after the car – in which Pistorius was a passenger – was pulled over for speeding, the court heard.
Samantha Taylor, a model who was also a passenger in the car, said the police had spotted his gun lying on the car seat and told him it ‘couldn’t just stay there’.
She added: ‘Oscar got angry. He shouted at the policeman because he was not allowed to touch his gun.’
After the confrontation with officers was over, the car pulled away and Pistorius re-loaded the weapon, letting off a shot through the sunroof around 15 minutes later.
The driver of the car was Darren Fresco – the friend pressured by Pistorius to take the blame in another shooting incident that was relayed to the court earlier in the week.
Miss Taylor told Pretoria High Court that the double amputee carried a gun ‘all the time’ during their relationship, which began when she was 17.
He kept one under his bed and on the floor with his prosthetic legs at night, she added.
Miss Taylor painted a picture of a man who was frequently angry, raised his voice, kept multiple mobile phones and was unfaithful.
The witness wept repeatedly as she described their turbulent romance, which began in 2011 and ‘ended when he cheated on me with Reeva Steenkamp’ – the girlfriend he is alleged to have shot on Valentine’s Day last year.
Her evidence about the shooting incident in the car relates to firearm offences that Pistorius has denied, which are in addition to the murder charge he is facing.
Miss Taylor described another incident in which Pistorius had brandished a gun to threaten the driver of a car that he believed was following them home.
‘When we arrived at his estate, he jumped out of the car with his gun and held it to someone’s window and then they drove away,’ she said.
During cross examination, the double amputee’s lawyer, Barry Roux, put it to Miss Taylor that Pistorius could sound like a woman when he raised his voice in anxiety.
She disagreed and told the court that she had heard the athlete shout at her ‘sister, best friend, another friend, and his best friend’ and ‘he never sounded like a woman’.
The trial continues. (0)
Oscar Pistorius vomits in court as pathologist gives harrowing account of Reeva Steenkamp’s injuries
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