Oscar Pistorius’ forensic expert admitted he surfed the internet for research
and used a music producer to splice together recordings of gunshots being
fired in a bruising day of cross-examination in the witness box.
Roger Dixon, a former police forensics chief-turned university professor and
expert-for-hire, has given evidence about marks on the lavatory door
Pistorius shot Reeva Steenkamp through, blood spatters, sounds heard by
neighbours and the lighting conditions at the athlete’s Pretoria home on the
night of February 14 last year.
The scientist, a forensic geologist by training who spent 18 years with the
police, contradicted the state pathologist, saying he was wrong about the
order of bullets fired and the injuries inflicted on Steenkamp.
He agreed that the first shot hit the victim in the hip, and the fourth in the
head. But unlike the prosecution, who said the second bullet missed and
ricocheted and the third hit her in the arm, he said the second hit her in
the arm shortly after the first, and the third nicked her hand before
ricocheting.
He said injuries to the model’s back were caused by her falling on the
magazine rack in the toilet not, as the state pathologist said, by the
second bullet after it ricocheted off the wall.
Mr Dixon also contradicted the state ballistics expert that Steenkamp would
have been standing facing the door when she was hit, saying instead that she
would have been rising from a sitting position with her hand reaching
towards the handle.
“I think the deceased was falling, four shots in rapid succession and they hit
as she was falling and turning,” he said.
Recordings were played to the court of two sets of gunshots and compared to
the sound of a cricket bat hitting the lavatory door.
Pistorius, 27, claims he fired at the lavatory door thinking an intruder was
inside, then beat down the door with a cricket bat when he realised his
girlfriend was inside.
Mr Dixon’s evidence of Steenkamp being shot as she rose from sitting, and four
bullets fired in quick succession, contradict the prosecution account that
she was standing arguing with Pistorius through the locked lavatory door and
had time to scream out as she was shot – cries they say were heard by
several neighbours.
But Gerrie Nel, the state prosecutor, tore into the academic’s evidence –
highlighting his lack of qualifications to issue pronouncements on sound
tests, blood spatters or ballistics.
He established that Mr Dixon did not attend Steenkamp’s post-mortem, had only
witnessed three autopsies in his life and had not read fully the report of
Professor Gert Saayman, the state pathologist who dissected Steenkamp’s body.
He forced Mr Dixon to admit that the gun the defence team bought to shoot at a
replica door jammed repeatedly so they employed a music producer to splice
together recordings of the individual shots being fired.
Mr Dixon also admitted that he had not been present when a second gunshot test
was done, and he went on the internet to check what gunshots sounded like
before giving evidence.
Challenged by Mr Nel that he had led the court to believe he was present for
all the tests, he said: "There was no design or intent on behalf of myself
or Mr Wolmarans (the defence ballistics evidence) to mislead the court or
prosecution.”
He agreed he was never given the cricket bat Pistorius used to break down the
door to conduct independent tests, nor the socks he wore when he kicked at
the door, which he found had left fibres embedded in the varnish which the
police experts missed.
When the defence expert conceded he was a “layman” on matters of pathology, Mr
Nel told him he was “irresponsible” to agree to give evidence in acourt. On
another occasions, he asked him for his “finding”, adding scathingly, “I use
the term loosely”.
As the case adjourned, the defence team made light of Mr Nel’s savaging and
brushed off suggestions their witness had been discredited.
Police experts giving evidence for the prosecution have already been upbraided
over blunders including picking up the gun used to kill Steenkamp without
gloves, walking over the lavatory door, moving exhibits and failing to
secure the scene to the extent that Pistorius’ watches were stolen.
The case continues.