At Paralympian gold medalist Oscar Pistorius' murder trial, a police witness testified that the athlete did not wear his prosthetic legs when he based the toilet door using a cricket bat after fatally shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Bloomberg said the athlete earlier told the court that he thought Steenkamp was an intruder when he shot her through a bathroom door at his house in Pretoria, South Africa. The news agency said that police investigator Johannes Vermeulen's testimony has contradicted Pistorius' claim the latter made at his bail hearing that happened last year.
In the High Court where Pistorius' hearing has been heard for the past few days, the prosecution has recreated the scene wherein the athlete bashed the toilet door without his prosthetics. Vermeulen said today in court that the door marks were consistent to the theory that Pistorius didn't use his prosthetics when he attempted to break the door using his Lazer cricket bat. Bloomberg said Pistorius' legal camp argued that the athlete had put on his prosthetics in his bedroom before returning to kick the door in prior to using the bat.
Barry Roux, the lead attorney for Pistorius, had been challenging neighbors' testimony in the first seven days of the murder trial. Aside from murder charges, Pistorius was also charged with three separate gun possession and handling charges, Bloomberg said.
The news agency said that the murder and gun charges had cost a once promising career for the double amputee, who first rose to fame when he won six Paralympic gold medals and represented South Africa at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Pistorius reportedly lost sponsorship deals with Nike Inc and Luxottica Group SpA's Oakley.
Judge Thokozile Masipa of the High Court will be making a final judgement on Pistorius' case after the three-week trial as South Africa does not have a jury system, Bloomberg had said.
