Time of Reeva’s last meal questioned – Oscar trial
A forensic pathologist cast doubt on a State witness's testimony that Reeva Steenkamp ate about two hours before her death, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Monday.
June, mother of Reeva Steenkamp, is seen during the murder trial of paralympian Oscar Pistorius (foreground) at the high court in Pretoria on Monday, 7 April 2014. The murder trial resumed on Monday after one of the judge’s assessors fell ill. The athlete is on trial for the murder of Steenkamp whom he shot dead through a locked toilet door at his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day last year. He claims he mistook her for an intruder. Picture: Deaan Vivier/Media24/Pool
“Professor Saayman testified that her last meal could have been between an hour to two hours before her death. What do you say to that?” Barry Roux, for murder accused paralympian Oscar Pistorius, asked pathologist Jan Botha.
“It could have been an hour or two, or it could have been considerably longer,” Botha said. He was the first witness to testify for the defence.
Roux asked him if it was possible to determine accurately the time between Steenkamp’s last meal and her death.
“I do not think so,” he replied.
Roux was attempting to cast doubt on evidence by Prof Gert Saayman, who conducted the autopsy on Steenkamp, and who testified for the State previously.
Pistorius is expected to testify in his defence his week, to explain how, according to him, he accidentally shot dead his girlfriend Steenkamp through the locked toilet door of his home on February 14 last year.
Pistorius has been charged with the murder of Steenkamp and contraventions of the Firearms Control Act. 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.
– Sapa
