'It was like an instant amputation': Oscar Pistorius cowers in the dock as forensic expert describes horrific gunshot injury to Reeva Steenkamp's arm
- Clasps hands over ears as he hears effects of bullets that hit Reeva
- Expert claims bullets hit her in different order to prosecution's account
- Claims bedroom was so dark athlete could not have seen if Reeva in bed
- Prosecutor says expert not qualified to make claims about light and sound
- Athlete reads a Good Luck card as judge rules proceedings will adjourn for two weeks after Thursday
- Yesterday, court heard how model gave card to Paralympian just hours before he gunned her down
A despairing Oscar Pistorius buried his head in his hands today as a forensic expert described in graphic detail the gunshot wounds he inflicted on his girlfriend.
Former police officer Roger Dixon, the third witness called by the defense, was continuing his testimony today after contradicting parts of the prosecution case yesterday.
Describing the effects of the three bullets that hit Reeva Steenkamp, he said the one which struck the model's arm was 'like an instant amputation'.
Pistorius bent forward in the dock then clasped his hands over his ears as Mr Dixon went on to discuss the impact of the bullet wound to his girlfriend's skull.
Miss Steenkamp's mother, June, was also in court to hear the evidence.
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Evidence he can't bear to hear: Oscar Pistorius covers his ears in the dock as a forensic expert describes the horrific gunshot injuries he inflicted on Reeva Steenkamp
Stressful: Pistorius was back in the dock after seven days on the witness stand, five of which were under fierce cross-examination from prosecutor Gerrie Nel
In his testimony, Mr Dixon poured doubt on previous opinions given by a police expert and a pathologist on details of the wounds suffered by Miss Steenkamp when she was shot through the toilet door by the double-amputee athlete.
Police Captain Christiaan Mangena said she was shot in the hip first, the second shot missed and then the last two shots hit the model in the arm and head.
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Mr Dixon disagreed with that order and testified the first two shots hit Steenkamp in the hip and arm in quick succession while she was close to the door.
This apparently backs Pistorius's version that he shot in quick succession fearing an intruder was coming out the toilet cubicle to attack him.
Strain: Oscar Pistorius rubs his eyes as he listens to evidence from a forensic expert about the impact of Reeva Steenkamp's bullet wounds
Stern: The Paralympian listens in to testimony during his murder trial, which has lasted nearly seven weeks
Mr Dixon also testified that Miss Steenkamp's right arm may have been stretched out toward the handle of the door, suggesting she may have been in the process of opening the door.
The defense was using the testimony to try to cast doubt on the prosecution's case that Steenkamp was hiding from Pistorius after a late-night fight and had locked herself in the cubicle to seek refuge.
In cross-examination, prosecutor Gerrie Nel questioned whether Dixon was qualified to analyse the circumstances of Miss Steenkamp's death.
Mr Nel sought to prove that Mr Dixon was out of his depth in testifying about the lighting, sound and physical evidence inside Pistorius's home.
Dixon, a university professor, told the court about the sound made by Pistorius's cricket bat hitting his toilet door, visibility in the star sprinter's bedroom and blood splatter.
Pistorius's defence team has argued that neighbours who testified to hearing 'blood-curdling screams' followed by gunshots were mistaken.
Graphic detail: Forensic expert Roger Dixon gives his assessment of the order the bullets were fired and the injuries inflicted on Miss Steenkamp, contradicting previous opinions given by a police expert
If proven correct, the neighbours' account could punch a hole through Pistorius's claim he did not know Miss Steenkamp was in the toilet.
Pistorius's defence team has tried to show that the noises were in fact Pistorius bashing a cricket bat against his toilet door after realising he mistakenly killed the model.
'Are you a sound expert, sir?' asked Mr Nel. 'Have you received training in decibels and sound?'
Not specifically, said Dixon.
He also testified that Pistorius's bedroom was so dark the athlete could not have seen whether Steenkamp was in bed.
When Nel asked the geologist about how he analysed the visibility in Pistorius's bedroom room at night, Dixon said: 'My lady, the instruments I used there were my eyes.'
'Are you a blood splatter expert?' said Mr Nel.
'I have received no training in blood splatter analysis,' said Mr Dixon, a former employee of the South African Police Service.
Earlier, Pistorius read a Good Luck card in the dock as the judge in the murder trial ruled that proceedings will adjourn for more than two weeks after Thursday and resume on May 5.
Judge Thokozile Masipa said she was responding to a request for a break from the chief prosecutor and which was supported by the defense.
Oscar Pistorius's sister Aimee hugs one of her brother's supporters as she arrives for his trial
Right behind him: Supporters hold banners saying 'Team OP' and 'stay strong... hold on' as they wait for Pistorius to arrive at court
Oscar Pistorius arrives at the high court as his legal team prepares to continue his defence after a week of searing cross-examination in which he was accused of lying and tailoring evidence by prosecutor Gerrie Nel
Delay: The judge has ruled that proceedings will adjourn for more than two weeks after Thursday and resume on May 5 after a request from the state prosecutor
Pistorius's trial started March 3 and Masipa said the case had lasted longer than expected.
Chief defense lawyer Barry Roux has said he will call between 14 and 17 witnesses.
Yesterday, the court heard how Miss Steenkamp told Oscar Pistorius that she loved him in a Valentine’s card discovered after he shot her dead.
Miss Steenkamp gave the Paralympian the card and a wrapped picture frame with photographs of the pair in loving poses on the evening of February 13 last year, hours before he gunned her down.
Under questioning from his lawyer at the end of a gruelling seven-day stint in the box, the athlete was asked to read out the front of the card and the handwritten message inside.
Choking back tears, he said: 'Roses are red, violets are blue. I think today is a good day to tell you that... I love you'.
He said the envelope said 'Ozzy' with 'some hearts and a squiggle' while the card was signed 'Reeves' with a smiley face and three kisses.
'I think today is a good day to tell you that... I love you': Pistorius wept in court as he was asked to read out this Valentine's Day card message which was given to him by Reeva Steenkamp, along with a wrapped picture frame with photographs of the pair in loving poses, hours before he shot her dead
Poignant: A picture of the card saying 'Ozzy' with two hearts and the wrapped present which Pistorius said he could not face opening for months after Miss Steenkamp's death
The court has already heard that the Olympic athlete had bought neither a card nor gift for his girlfriend.
Instead of opening his gifts on Valentine’s Day last year, the double amputee was being questioned by police over her death.
Earlier in the trial, Pistorius said he could not face opening the card and present for many months after Miss Steenkamp died, but finally did so on her birthday in August last year.
The message was presented to the court in the hope it will counter prosecution claims that the couple were not in a loving relationship at the time of the shooting.
The model and aspiring TV actress had told the sprinter she sometimes was afraid of him during an exchange on messaging service WhatsApp.
Earlier, Pistorius described the moment he tried to shoulder-charge his toilet door after shooting his girlfriend in what he claims was a tragic accident.
Grim: A police photograph showing the blood-covered toilet cubicle where Miss Steenkamp was displayed in court as prosecutor Gerrie Nel questioned Pistorius's account of the moments after he shot the model
Macabre: This close-up of the magazine rack in a pool of blood in the toilet cubicle was also shown at the trial
Mr Nel closed his cross-examination yesterday by inviting Pistorius to take the blame for shooting Miss Steenkamp, but the runner steered away from a direct response, saying only that he opened fire because he believed his life was under threat.
That remark drew barbed follow-up questions from the prosecutor.
'We should blame somebody ... Should we blame Reeva?' asked Mr Nel, who has harshly criticised Pistorius as someone who is unwilling to take responsibility.
'No, my lady,' Pistorius replied, addressing the judge in line with court custom.
SOUTH AFRICA'S TOP LAWYERS GO HEAD-TO-HEAD ON THE BIGGEST STAGE
THE PROSECUTOR
Gerrie Nel, right, is considered South Africa's top state prosecutor. He has been dubbed 'pitbull' by local media for his combative style.
He is most famous for sending to jail ex-Interpol president and South Africa's former police chief Jackie Selebi, proving he had taken bribes from an organised crime network.
The prosecution won him an award from the International Association of Prosecutors, but he has not always emerged unscathed from his tangles with power .
In 2008, at the height of the Selebi controversy, Nel was arrested by armed police in front of his family.
Charges of fraud, perjury and 'defeating the ends of justice' were eventually dropped, with commentators decrying an attempt to discredit him.
His elite investigations unit, the Scorpions, was later disbanded amid allegations it was pursuing graft and other charges against now President Jacob Zuma with politically motivated zeal.
It was then he joined the government prosecutor's office.
Nel is described as a master of presenting evidence by legal analysts.
In Pistorius's bail hearing last year, Nel painted a picture of Pistorius as a man who was 'willing and ready to fire and kill' and Steenkamp as cowering, terrified and hiding in the toilet before Pistorius shot through the toilet door to kill her.
'She couldn't go anywhere,' Nel said in court last year. 'It must have been horrific.'
THE DEFENSE
Barry Roux, right, has been described even by other attorneys as South Africa's best defense lawyer.
His cross-examination of police detective Hilton Botha in Pistorius's bail hearing in February last year was so extensive that Botha, who was later removed from the case, had to concede that nothing about Pistorius's version of events could be disproved at the time.
Roux, an attorney for about 30 years, also succeeded in getting the court to agree to release Pistorius on bail of 1 million rand (then $113,000) despite the fact that the double-amputee athlete was charged with premeditated murder.
He also got another court to relax some of Pistorius's strict bail conditions on appeal.
With 31 years experience in the legal fraternity, Roux has taken on some of the most controversial cases in South Africa.
In the 1990s he defended apartheid-era general Lothar Neethling, who sued a newspaper over claims that he supplied poison used against anti-apartheid activists.
He also secured a much-reduced settlement in the tax evasion trial of Dave King, a Glasgow-born businessman.
Self-defence claim: Pistorius denies deliberately shooting Reeva Steenkamp, claiming that he mistook her for a dangerous burglar whom he thought was about the burst through the toilet door at him
Mr Nel ended with a stark summary of how he allegedly shot his girlfriend, insisting he killed her deliberately after an argument.
'You fired four shots through the door whilst knowing that she was standing behind the door,' said Mr Nel, known in South Africa as 'The Pitbull' for his hectoring and relentless style of questioning.
'She was locked into the bathroom and you armed yourself with the sole purpose of shooting and killing her,' he claimed.
'That is not true,' said the 27-year-old Pistorius, who faces life in prison if convicted of murder.
Pistorius, 27, faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder. He denies all the charges against him.
The trial continues.
SHOCKING TESTIMONY, VOMITING IN THE DOCK AND THE GRISLY TRAIL OF BLOOD THROUGH PISTORIUS'S HOUSE: A TIMELINE OF THE TRIAL SO FAR
March 3: The trial begins with testimony from neighbour Michell Burger who claims she heard 'blood-curdling screams' before gunshots were fired at the time Oscar Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp.
His lawyer Barry Roux says he intends to call a witness to testify that Pistorius screams sounded like a woman in a bid to discredit the claims.
March 4: Pistorius breaks down in court as Mr Roux argues that Miss Steenkamp was so badly brain damaged by the gunshot to her head she couldn't possibly have screamed for help.
Physically sick: Oscar Pistorius vomits into a bucket as the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem on Reeva Steenkamp gave a graphic account of her injuries
March 5: Mr Roux seeks to undermine the testimony of a couple who say they heard a woman's screams and gunfire on the night the athlete shot his girlfriend.
Barry Roux said similarities in the accounts given by husband and wife Michell Burger and Charl Johnson indicated they had aligned their versions at the expense of the truth.
March 6: Pistorius weeps in the dock as a neighbour describes the harrowing moment he tried to resuscitate his girlfriend after she was shot.
Radiologist Johan Stipp dashed to the Paralympian's home after hearing gunshots to find Pistorius kneeling next to Reeva Steenkamp and 'praying to God' that she would survive, the trial heard.
March 8: A former girlfriend who claims Pistorius dumped her for Miss Steenkamp testifies that he once shot at a traffic light because he was furious that a police officer had touched his gun.
March 10: Pistorius vomits in court when a pathologist describes how he shot Miss Steenkamp with so-called cop-killer Black Talon bullets which are designed to 'expand and mushroom' to inflict maximum damage.
Aftermath of the killing: This picture of Oscar Pistorius, bare-chested and covered in blood from the waist down, was taken by police shortly after the Paralympian shot Reeva Steenkamp at his home
March 11: A friend tells the judge that the Paralympian has a 'big love' of weapons and recalls the time the athlete laughed after allegedly firing his gun out of the sunroof of a car.
March 12: A forensic analyst stages a dramatic courtroom reconstruction of the moment Pistorius broke down the toilet door with a cricket bat after shooting Miss Steenkamp.
Police colonel Johannes Vermeulen argued that Pistorius was on his stumps at the time, contradicting the Paralympian's assertion that he was wearing his prosthetic legs.
March 13: Horrific pictures following the trail of blood through Pistorius's house are shown at the trial - including one of his girlfriend's corpse that made the athlete throw up in the dock.
The image of Miss Steenkamp's blood-covered body was accidentally shown while the prosecution was showing other images including the cocked 9mm pistol used to kill the model.
Shocking: Blood can be seen down the athlete's left arm and on his shorts apparently from when he carried his dead girlfriend down the stairs after shooting her in the bathroom
March 14: Dramatic pictures are shown to the court of a bare-chested Pistorius with blood all over his shorts and prosthetic legs shortly after killing his model girlfriend.
March 17: A gun licenser testifies that Pistorius was in the process of buying seven guns - three shotguns, two revolvers, semi-automatic assault rifle and another self-loading rifle - at the time he killed his girlfriend.
The order, which came to $5,000 (£3,000), was cancelled a month after the shooting.
Earlier, the court heard the double-amputee had a 'great love and enthusiasm' for guns and once went into full 'combat mode' after hearing a possible intruder at his home.
The noise turned out to be a washing machine.
Pistorius had also passed self-defence tests that stated you shouldn't fire unless you knew what you are shooting at and what lay behind the target, the trial heard.
Key evidence: Forensic analyst Colonel Johannes Vermeulen stands in front of the toilet door through which Oscar Pistorius shot Reeva Steenkamp while holding the cricket bat the athlete then used to break it down
March 19: The trial is told that Pistorius looked at porn and car websites the night before he killed Miss Steenkamp.
He breaks down in the dock as a ballistics expert tells Pretoria's High Court that Miss Steenkamp was struck in the hip by the first bullet, then fell back on to a magazine holder by the toilet.
She was then hit by another two bullets which struck her in the right arm and her skull as she crossed her arms over her head to protect herself.
March 20: It is revealed by the runner's lawyer that he has been forced to sell the luxury villa where he shot Miss Steenkamp to raise money to pay for his legal bills.
March 24: The court hears how the 29-year-old model admitted to being scared of the South African track star in text messages sent less than three weeks before her death.
One of them read: 'I'm scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me'. A later text said: 'I can’t be attacked by outsider for dating u and be attacked by you the person I deserve protection from.'
Scene of horror: This newly released photograph shows the blood-soaked bathroom where Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the toilet cubicle (top) with his 9mm pistol (seen lying on a bathmat, right) and the blood-splattered cricket bat (bottom right) he used to break down the toilet door after killing her
March 25: A selfie of Miss Steenkamp blowing a kiss which she sent to Pistorius weeks before he killed her is shown to the court.
March 28: Trial is adjourned until April 7 after one of the judge's two assessors is taken ill in hospital.
April 7: Pistorius takes the witness stand. He starts his testimony with a tearful apology to Miss Steenkamp's family, saying: 'I can’t imagine the pain and the sorrow and the emptiness that I’ve caused you and your family. I was simply trying to protect Reeva.'
He tells the court the shooting has left him plagued by nightmares which he wakes up from 'smelling blood' and that he is taking anti-depressant medication to help with panic attacks.
April 8: Pistorius wails on the stand as he speaks in public for the first time about the moment he killed Miss Steenkamp.
The Paralympian said he heard the noise of the bathroom window opening. 'That's the moment that everything changed,' he said, his voice tense with emotion. 'Before I knew it, I'd fired four shots.'
He wept so uncontrollably the court was forced to adjourn for the day.
Analysing the finest detail: Prosecutor Gerrie Nel gestures as he explains a possible scenario about how Pistorius might have fired at girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp
April 9: Mr Nel urges Pistorius to publicly 'take responsibility' for the killing while telling him to look at a graphic image of the gunshot wound to Miss Steenkamp's head.
April 10: In a newspaper interview, Miss Steenkamp's mother, June, says she does not care whether Pistorius is jailed for shooting her daughter because nothing will bring her back.
In court, Mr Nel accuses the athlete of being an egotistical liar and says his apology to Miss Steenkamp's family was an insincere 'spectacle'.
April 11: Mr Nel tells Pistorius: 'You knew that Reeva went behind the door and you shot at her'.
April 13: In an interview with the Mail On Sunday, Miss Steenkamp's older sister brands the runner a 'disgusting liar' after attending some of his testimony in court with her mother.
Simone Steenkamp, 48, said: 'He is trying to convince the court that they were really close and that he cared for her. It's not true.'
Pistorius wails 'I did not fire at Reeva' while denying intentionally shooting the model after prosecutor claims he 'lowered his aim to kill her'
Evidence: An image of the four bullet holes in the toilet door through which Pistorius shot his girlfriend
April 14: Pistorius wails 'I did not fire at Reeva' while denying intentionally shooting the model after prosecutor claims he 'lowered his aim to kill her'.
April 15: Pistorius sobs on the stand while reading out a Valentine's Day card from his girlfriend which he was due to open on the day her killed her.
Choking back tears, he said: 'Roses are red, violets are blue. I think today is a good day to tell you that... I love you'.
Prosecutor ended his searing cross-examination with the stark summary of his alleged actions.
'You armed yourself with the sole purpose of shooting and killing her,' he declared as he wrppaed up his case.
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