'Impossible to tell shots order'

OSCAR Pistorius's star defence witness claims it is impossible to determine the order of gunshots that killed Reeva Steenkamp.

The sequence of the four gunshots that struck Steenkamp through the locked toilet door of Pistorius's luxury home on Valentine's Day last year is vital to the state's case.

The state claims Pistorius shot Steenkamp after an argument and that she had screamed after she was first shot in the hip and arm. Pistorius, who claims he mistook her for an intruder, has denied she screamed.

Yesterday, during the athlete's murder trial in the high court in Pretoria, the defence called several experts to the stand.

Ballistics expert Thomas Wolmarans told the court it was not only impossible to determine the order that the shots hit Steenkamp, but it was also impossible to know exactly where she had been standing when she was shot. This was because the state's ballistics expert, Captain Chris Mangena, failed to take proper recordings or note the deflection of the bullets when measuring their trajectory, he said.

Wolmarans disputed Mangena's findings, saying he had ignored the bullets' deflections and their meanings.

He said the gunshot wound to Steenkamp's hip was consistent with her being upright and leaning slightly forward when first shot.

"Tests which I conducted show she was between 6cm and 20cm from the door when she was shot ... wooden splinters from the door which struck her upper right arm prove this."

Wolmarans's testimony, which continues today, came after social worker Yvette van Schalkwyk took the witness stand.

Van Schalkwyk, who monitored Pistorius during his bail application last year and acted as his probation officer, approached the defence team on Tuesday, asking to testify about the authenticity of Pistorius's emotional breakdowns.

She claimed to have been compelled to do so after media reports questioning his sincerity surfaced.

"I did not testify until now because I thought I couldn't contribute ... but when I read certain things, such as him having acting classes to cry at certain times, I became upset."

She testified that when she encountered Pistorius in the cells she found a "heartbroken man in mourning, emotional from the suffering he had caused, crying over his loss".

Responding to prosecutor Gerrie Nel's questions about whether Pistorius had ever told her he was sorry for what he had done, she said no. "He only ever said he missed Reeva." Nel asked whether this was strange.

Van Schalkwyk said Pistorius did say he was sorry, "but only for his loss". Again, Nel said, it was all about him. - Graeme Hosken