Pistorius witness ‘heard screams in the night’
Issued on: Modified:
This browser does not support the video element.
The murder trial of Olympic hero Oscar Pistorius, accused over the killing of his model girlfriend, opened in South Africa on Monday with a witness testifying she heard terrible screams on the night of the killing.
The first prosecution witness, university lecturer Michelle Burger, said she was woken at around 3 am by “bloodcurdling screams” from the Pistorius home, less than 200 metres away in an upmarket Johannesburg gated community.
“She screamed terribly and she yelled for help,” Burger told the court. She said she heard four shots and thought “people were being attacked in their homes...
“I heard petrified screaming before the gunshots, and just after the gunshots.”
Pistorius, a double-amputee Paralympian runner, has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including the murder of his former girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, 29.
Pistorius killed Steenkamp at his home in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day last year by shooting her through a toilet door. Pistorius denies murder and says he killed her by mistake.
He claims he had thought she was in bed when he fired four times through the door, thinking there was an intruder on the other side.
Prosecutors say Pistorius, 27, killed Steenkamp with premeditation after the two had had an argument. They say they will seek a life sentence if Pistorius is convicted, the sternest punishment available in South Africa, which no longer has the death penalty.
‘Loving Relationship’
Pistorius admitted killing her, but denied murderous intent: “This allegation is denied in the strongest terms. We were in a loving relationship.”
In a statement read out by Pistorius’s lawyer Kenny Oldwage, he described her death as a “tragic accident”.
Advocate Barry Roux repeatedly challenged Burger, picking at potential inconsistences in her account.
Roux grilled Burger over the number of gunshots heard, asking why she heard four shots and her husband, who is yet to testify, reported hearing more.
“Was your husband right when he said five or six shots?” pressed Roux.
“I’m certain I have heard four gun shots, I don’t speak on my husband’s behalf,” said Burger.
Roux repeatedly asked if Burger believed Pistorius was lying.
“I did not understand why Pistorius did not hear the screams,” she said.
The trial will also spotlight the issue of gun ownership and South Africa’s problem of violent crime, which Pistorius says was the reason why he kept his licensed 9 mm handgun under his bed.
Other gun offences
As well as murder, Pistorius faces a second charge of illegal possession of ammunition for bullets found at his Pretoria house for which he allegedly didn’t have proper licensing.
Prosecutors say he also will be indicted Monday with two more gun charges relating to him allegedly shooting in public on two separate occasions before Steenkamp’s killing.
The gun charges reportedly relate to him allegedly shooting out the sunroof of a car in one incident and another when he allegedly fired a gun inside a restaurant, apparently by mistake.
If convicted on the murder charge, Pistorius could be sent to prison for at least 25 years before the chance of parole, the minimum time someone must serve if given a life sentence in South Africa. He would be more than 50 before he could be released.
A lesser sentence is possible if Pistorius is found guilty of murder but without premeditation. He also could be convicted of culpable homicide, South Africa’s version of manslaughter in which someone is killed through negligence.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP)