Defence now paints Pistorius as vulnerable, disabled person
IN AN attempt to save Oscar Pistorius, his defence team is portraying him as a helpless, disabled person relying on primitive reflexes to survive what he perceives as imminent threats.
Defence witness ProfessorWayne Derman, a sports doctor who has treated Pistorius, said the athlete shot at a noise to "nullify any threat".
He withered yesterday under gruelling cross examination by prosecutor Gerrie Nel and at times appeared defiant.
Nel also charged that Derman was biased because of his relationship with Pistorius. He said Derman's role as an expert witness was to assist the court.
A legal expert said he believed the defence team was pursuing a strategy that might lead to a rewriting of South African law.
Pistorius is accused of shooting dead his girlfriend, former Port Elizabeth model Reeva Steenkamp, in his Pretoria home on Valentine's Day last year. He claims he mistook her for an intruder.
Stephen Tuson, a Wits University criminal law expert, commenting on yesterday's developments in court, said: "Everyone has been asking what Pistorius's defence is.
"First, it was putative self-defence, then an accident, and now, coming full circle, it's putative self-defence again. It appears his lawyers are flirting with involuntary defence, trying to say that disabled people react differently, should be treated differently to the able-bodied, and ultimately judged differently.
"This would require new laws to be written, and new laws require a new standard test. It is something that will be a remote possibility if the court accepts Pistorius's version."
QuadPara Association of SA chief executive Ari Seirlis said all people should be tried under the same laws. "All disabled people can't be painted with the same brush regarding vulnerability," he said. "Quadriplegics are so vulnerable that they can't use a handgun to compensate for their vulnerability ...
"But when you are tall, fast, strong and hold up a gold medal in one hand for coming first, you cannot hold a gun in the other hand and say 'I can still shoot and then blame it on vulnerability'."
Pistorius's lawyer, Kenny Oldwadge, leading Derman, read from a court-ordered psychiatric report that referred to "two Oscars": one, an "international superstar" and the other "a vulnerable and disabled person".
"It is possible that a blueprint of mistrust, insecurity and being unsafe was laid down at that early stage of his personality development because of a traumatic experience his pre-verbal brain could not make sense of," Oldwadge read in reference to the amputation of Pistorius's legs when he was a young child.
Derman said Pistorius was a paradox, being both "abled and disabled".
The trial continues on Monday after Nel asked for time to consult with one of the psychiatrists who evaluated Pistorius last month. – Graeme Hosken. Additional reporting by Marzanne van den Berg
