The Oscar Pistorius trial is ongoing, and the paralympian has had a very visceral reaction to hearing post-mortem evidence regarding girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp’s murder.
As pathologist Gert Saayman relayed to the court the condition of Steenkamp’s body after she was shot in the head, Pistorius had to be brought a bucket which he retched in to until the trial was adjourned.
Throughout the proceedings, he continued to cry and vomit.
The court heard that Steenkamp had been shot three times – in the head, the hip and the arm. Saayman added that the particular bullets used – a “black talon” type – were designed to cause the maximum amount of tissue damage and disintegrate on impact with human tissue.
After being shot, she would’ve only been able to take a few breaths, before losing consciousness.
The pathologist also revealed that there were bruises on Steenkamp’s body that were not related to the shooting and appeared to have been caused by a “blunt instrument”.
The details of the evidence Saayman gave in the court were deemed to be too graphic to be broadcast, and the judge, Justice Thokozile Masipa, ruled that tweets and blog posts could not be sent from the courtroom.
Pistorius, 27, sat with his hands over his ears, and retched loudly in the silent courtroom. He was granted a few minutes to collect himself but the court was adjourned when his lawyer said that “he is very emotional, it is not going to change”.
The paralympian spent a few minutes sitting in the dock, being comforted by family members, after the trial was adjourned.
Members of the public have doubts as to whether Pistorius’s reaction was genuine, and commentators are split over whether it was shock or guilt that caused his vomiting, after hearing such graphic details of his girlfriend’s death
Pistorius denies intentionally killing Steenkamp. He says that he mistook her for an intruder in the home that they shared, when he fired four shots through the bathroom door.
The trial is ongoing.
Top Comments
How dare he carry on like this - gagging and vomiting! Surely if you are committed to a lifestyle that involves protecting yourself with firearms then surely you have to have some understanding of the absolutely devastating affects they can have on the fragile human body. It's a bloody shameful display. Suck it up man and accept that your actions ended another human beings life.
He may be making himself vomit or vomitting genuinely. Either way, vomitting does not equate with innocence or guilt. I agree with jamie that it distracts away from the facts of the case and that he should be removed from court if he is going to be melting down like this. He could watch the court proceedings on a screen from another room where the jury/judge cannot be distracted by him.
Personally, things I find really odd about this case include:
- he hears sounds and thinks there is an intruder and is terrified because it is pitch black and he has not got his legs on. He is the victim defending himself according to his defence. Hang on, the facts are that he has the presence of mind to arm himself and be moving around with a gun loaded with extra deadly bullets. the dark does not stop him moving and firing with deadly precision, regardless of whether he has legs on or not.
- in that situation of an intruder who would not ensure that their partner , who they supposedly assume is in bed next to them, who would not check they are there, they are ok, or warn them to say, I can hear something, someone's here, get ready to call police before setting off to confront the intruder?
-if you havnet heard your partner speak, even if you assume they are in bed, anad you hear noises in teh toilet and are about to blow that persons head off with not one but four shots, would you not call out outside the toilet, Reeva, is that you in there?
-And that's before you even consider rtestimony of female screams before the shots etc,
Just saying.
Yep. Biggest one for me is how he didn't wake Reeva / make sure she was next to him in bed before getting up to confront the alleged intruders. I know for sure whenever I hear a noise in bed late at night I wake up my partner - that's if he too hasn't already woken to the noise. Which makes me wonder, how did she not hear it? It wasn't her home, so wouldn't she be more sensitive to noises?