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Oscar Pistorius is a volunteer caretaker at NG Kerk Waterkloof
Oscar a poor witness – Judge Masipa
Murder accused paralympian Oscar Pistorius was a poor witness, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Thursday.
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius is seen in the dock as judgment is handed down in his murder trial at the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday, 11 September 2014. Picture: Phill Magakoe/Independent Newspapers/ Pool
“The accused was a very poor witness,” Judge Thokozile Masipa read from her judgment.
“During his evidence-in-chief he seemed composed and logical. During cross-examination he lost his composure.”
She rejected Pistorius’s defence that this was because he was under emotional stress, traumatised, and medicated.
LIVE VIDEO FEED: Oscar Pistorius Judgment
“It was only under cross-examination that he contradicted himself and visibly felt uncomfortable,” she said, explaining herself.
She said the evidence that the killing of Reeva Steenkamp was premeditated was “purely circumstantial”.
“There are just not enough facts to support such a finding.”
Pistorius is accused of murdering Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse on Valentine’s Day last year. He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to emerge and attack him. She was hit in the hip, arm, and head.
The paralympian also faces three charges of contravening the Firearms Control Act — one of illegal possession of ammunition and two of discharging a firearm in public. He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013. On September 30, 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
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– Sapa
