Oscar Pistorius Trial Part 6

[Roussette]

here is Part 5 but we are ready (nearly) for a new one.

some of this stuff is just so fabricated or utterly misremembered
Fiancee?
OP said they were 'deeply in love' in his bail statement
absolutely no evidence of that and they had only started going out

i'm not saying in his predicament I would not have done the same though

How can this witness be taken seriously when he said fiancée? Ridiculous. So you ask someone to marry you before you tell them you love them?

Well maybe if she was staying over and they are all very Christian it was a white lie?

I can't follow as at work and not sure it's been said, but think in the terms of the bail conditions it said OP was allowed to stay in contact with Standers as family friends, and I think (iirc) they had lost their son recently in a motorcycle accident so OP had, as a friend of their son / family, been supporting them.... hence contact being allowed.

If they are trying to suggest how serious OP was about Reeva, I don't see what good that does them. The opposite of love is not hate but indifference.

This man seems to be a convincing witness imo

I agree, Ronald, though he's testified that he didn't hear any bang - he heard Oscar crying after his wife had woken him up.

The other worrying thing is that the officer gathered testimony from him while his wife was in the room (in the kitchen end of the open plan room) and he was there when his wife gave her statement.

@Speedwell "What was Mr Chiziweni employed to actually do for OP that he needed to live there? (Out of interest)"

He probably does not earn enough to afford daily commute and the area Oscar lives in is not easily accessible with cheaper public transport

This appears to be the neighbour who had the lights on all night, as seen by Stipp. Does this corroborate Stipp's evidence of the lights he saw on?

Just wondered what type of work he would be doing. Would it be cleaning, ironing?

@ speedwellblue I would guess he worked as a handyman and gardener as Oscar has domestic assistant. Mr Chiziweni probably serviced other households in the area - there is only so much you can garden

Could only half listen up to now. Did I hear the witness say that Gerrie Nel haas asked him if he has listened to the trial and did he want to change/add to his statement ?

Is that usual.

Speed. I understood that he did everything around the house.

"Over to the reason the Judge wanted to see Nel "

or could it be that the judge wants to know why Frank isn't being called? maybe the Judge has the power to bring him to court and maybe she is gobsmacked that such an important witness isn't being called (Although I can't remember if he was mentioned after she said she wanted to speak to him).

finding this morning's testimony hard to follow on account of the translating.

The female translator is so heavily accented it is difficult to make out when she switches to English.

I find it hard to believe, too, that the Standers took a call from Oscar, got up, had a conversation, got dressed (unless they were in their bedclothes when they arrived at the house), Miss Stander waited in her car for her father (was car in the garage?) and drove to OP's house in the timescales given.

I guess it's all corroborated by phone records though?

Thanks Zulu and Springy

Frank would know so much - who ate when, whether the alarm remote beeped, the dogs' usual barking behaviour, etc, etc.

He might, might not. Depends on the set up and where he actually lives. Could be entirely self contained.

only one way to find out - question him.

The police already did and weren't convinced by his story that he heard nothing. They would know if there was a possibility, having seen how close his living space was to the house, if his windows were open etc.

The trouble with Mrs Nhlengethwa's testimony, is that she heard the help help help, but didn't hear the second set of bangs. She heard (I think, if I'm following this right) one bang or set of bangs, then help help help.

But according to Pistorius, he yelled help help help before hitting the door with the bat. So the bat noise was either loud enough for people far away to mistake for a gun, or quiet enough for the next door neighbours not to hear.

Nel has made the point that in Dr Stipp's evidence he also says he heard help help help after all the bangs had happened, which also contradicts Pistorius' evidence. (I'm just taking that on what Nel has just said, I haven't transcribed that part of the evidence).

I'm glad others have found the translator hard to understand, I've been struggling here.

Yy to Frank not being called, very odd, if he's given a statement to say he heard nothing I guess you can't force him to talk?

I suppose Nel is trying to say that if witnesses have been following the trail on the television it might have some sort of impact (can't think of the word I need) on their testimony?

I didn't mean the alarm remote beeping that night or the dogs barking that night, more that he would know about those things generally from his work. So far, we only have OP's word that the dogs never bark, for example.

only one way to find out - question him.

But is there any point dragging him into court if he was only going to repeat 'I heard nothing, I know nothing' to all the questions?

Yes, if there was a way of compelling him to the truth (assuming that isn't the truth), but there really isn't. You'd end up humiliating him on the stand, and progressing the case not at all.

In a lot of ways, an unreliable or untrustworthy witness is worse than no witness at all. That's why they go to town on finding out how reliable each witness is.

It makes me wonder, what would happen if someone was unprepared to take the oath. If they objected to that?

BookaBoo and Ronald - thanks for clarifying re "Oom"