Oscar Pistorius trial

[JillJ72]

Starting a new thread as as was pointed out on the other thread, it is not an appropriate place to "talk" and continue to "promote" a really poor excuse for a "joke".

Yesterday's post-mortem evidence was awful; if ever there's a way to get across just how unglamorous guns are, post-mortem evidence is a painfully honest way of doing so.

I listened to the trial live today. My main impression? That Darren Fresco consulted with legal experts to ensure his affidavit did not incriminate him, yet left room for questions that weren't explicitly answered. If he'd paid for that input from legal experts, they didn't sew it up nicely and tightly. I got the impression he was a bit of an unwilling witness really, and had problems remembering some things, yet was very insistent on others. Some good journo feeds on twitter that give different flavours and interpretations.

I'll be honest. I hope this was as OP said, an appalling mistake. But equally so many questions, the constant "whys". And so I am sitting on the fence, listening to argument and counter-argument, and waiting for the judge's final decision.

Never have been in a court of law before, are proceedings usually this long, slow, going round in circles, playing cat and mouse?

"He could have barricaded them both in the bedroom - aimed his gun at the bedroom door - and called security. It just makes no sense to me."

SabrinaMulhollandJjones Some of the floorplans I've seen suggest there is no door between the bedroom and the bathroom (that's why the loo is a separate cubicle inside the bathroom) so that might be difficult.

Yep they met last December

I had heard he had a new girlfriend, but wondered if that was just gossip? Umm, not sure how I feel about that, but I'll admit I would be horrified if it were my daughter.

Is the girlfriend really a "girlfriend" or just a female friend? So much of what has been written about Pistorius in the "popular press" has turned out to be exaggerated or untrue that if it's in something like the Daily Mail I assume it's not true (actually if a story's in the DM, regardless of who they are writing about, I assume it's untrue).

I would have thought that his legal team would have made sure he didn't see anyone else until the trial had finished. Not a good move if true but won't have any bearing on the verdict since the Judge won't be reading the tabloids

Louise that's what I understand too, that there is no door between the bathroom and bedroom.

Have there been any official admission that he has a new girlfriend or is it just media hype? I can't believe that he would be stupid enough to let that come out at this time.

Thanks bum, agree lots of interesting points on here even where the opinion is different to mine. And can see your point re a deterrent making it not pointless. book if someone genuinely made a mistake in shooting a member of my family whilst actually trying to defend them, then I don't think I would expect them to go to jail. But I can't even go there in my mind, so of course I don't know how I would feel in reality, perhaps I would.

If OP is found to be being truthful, but still needs jail or some other punishment through taking someone else's life, out of interest, what could 'other punishment' actually look like?

louise true

Just looked it up - according to online gossip , her parents love him and her dad is planning to go to the trial. I also read that someone tweeted she was in court with him. Hmmm, not sure that is very likely. I shall find an online picture and scan all the girls in the courtroom.

There was a main bedroom door - but it's possible it wasn't between the bathroom and the bedroom.

www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Oscar_Pistorius/Oscar-bedroom-door-under-scrutiny-20140318

The "info" I read was he met the "new girl" around Christmas and then things ended around February. However, quite a lot of this "info" has been proven to be such utter fodder, so who knows.

I'm sure the new girlfriend is just gossip.

I remember it being reported on sky news before the trial started

Sabrina - here you go, here's a 3D map of his apartment. Kind of open plan between bedroom and bathroom... BBC News

There has been a lot of gossip leaks from the prosecution side including
OP phoned his lawyer first instead of an ambulance -not true
OP had forgotten the pin nos to his phones- not true
The couple had been heard arguing for hours- not true
He's got a new girlfriend- who knows?

Oh and a policewoman said on TV that the police had been called to the house before because of domestic issues- again not true.

As an aside... this thread is almost at 1000...

Will someone link to a new thread when it happens please?

Link here - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/2049921-Oscar-Pistorius-trial-part-2

Thanks, voice - the bedroom door that had damage on it enclosed the bedroom and the bathroom then.

Even so, to go looking for them? - you could just stay in the bedroom with the gun trained on the bathroom passage, surely. Rather than shooting through a door. He was hot-headed if the intruder story is true.

If he's telling the truth, he's crazily hot-headed. I just can't believe that your first thought when you hear a noise in a dark room that your partner is in too is not to say "Reeva, is that you?", but to assume the worst and then charge towards the action.

They're certainly building the case that he was very safety conscious - even for SA - telling Reeva not to drive alone etc. Combine that with hot-headed, armed and scared = dangerous combination, certainly.

I still think his story is a load of bollocks though.

He's going to be found guilty for the fire-arms offences I think - he was clearly reckless.

Sabrina, I agree and posted similar upthread. Get gun from under bed, get back into bed with Reeva (as that's where you think she is) and have gun in hand while you call security / police, surely? Don't go looking for confrontation with suspected (almost certainly armed) intruders.

That's what we might do in the UK (minus the gun) but maybe it's different over there and if you got back into bed you might make it easier for them to come and shoot you before you had the chance to react. Over here it's highly unlikely that you'd be killed as part of a burglary, but i believe over there it's pretty normal for a burglary to involve the householders being raped/injured or killed.

Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong about that

Bonnie I think you're more forgiving than me.

I don't think I would go back into bed to escape a possible threat but surely they could have ran out of the bedroom and into a different room with a lock where they could have called the police.

It seems beyond reckless to walk down the corridor into the bathroom. I remember reading about the time when OP came home and thought the washing machine was an intruder. He went towards the threat then too but crucially he didn't shoot at the perceived threat.

Frankly getting rather irritated by Nel's cross examination on these text messages. They were an argument, he is explaining his respinses, and nel keeps banging on about how he is blaming her. That's generally what arguments are about, upset and blaming. Thus far, am not hugely impressed by his approach to questioining yesterday or today.