At an odd hour of 3-17am, when most folks are sleeping, Pistorius had killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp who was in his toilet. He had fired four black talon 9mm bullets with his Glock pistol at the toilet door, the bullets which killed Reeva. He claimed that he thought an intruder was in the toilet and that he had fired at the door when the bathroom light was off i.e. he had shot in the darkness. If a killing takes place in the public, one may have some eye-witnesses testifying to the crime. This killing was done in the privacy of his home and therefore there have been no eye-witnesses. In this context, reliance has to be placed only upon the testimony provided by ear-witnesses and the testimony provided by the crime scene to properly assess the nature of the crime before accepting or rejecting the claims made by the one whose movement of fingers had taken away a precious human life. In this video, I have dealt with the testimonies given by two couples who reside close to Oscar's home. The first couple is the Stipps. Their house is just 70 meters away from Oscar's home and directly faces the bathroom and toilet windows of the accused. Anette Stipp, wife of Dr. Johan Stipp, was awake with a cough at the time when their clock radio showed 3-12 am. At that time she heard three loud bangs. Dr. Stipp, was asleep at 3-02 am, but woke up with the very first three loud bangs and the couple judged the bangs to be gunshots. She had looked at the clock later just before the final killing shots were fired and found it to be 3-17 am. In between she agreed that she and her husband would have spent 10 minutes at least in their larger balcony. Apart from seeing that the lights were on in Oscar's bathroom throughout the period from 3-02 am to 3-17 am, this couple also testified to hearing other sounds coming from the direction of Oscar's home. The second couple is the Johnsons. Their house is located 177 meters away from Oscar's home. At the time of the killing, i.e. 14th February 2013, one could have a direct view of Oscar's bathroom window [backside of Oscar's home] from the Johnsons' first floor balcony. This couple was asleep at the time when the three bangs sounded at 3-02 am, but the terrifying screams of Reeva that followed the bangs woke up this couple. Johnson stated that he had made a call to the security at 3-16 am and then returned to his balcony when he heard the final volley of shots. These two couples, respectable members of society, had given testimony to what they had heard [and seen], but because of apparent contradictions in their 'collective testimonies' the court has rejected their testimonies. Apart from the first three bangs that were heard only by the Stipp couple only, the rest of the sounds were either heard, not heard or were unable to be heard by these 'faithful and honest' witnesses. In this video, the seemingly inconsistency of their 'collective testimonies' is dealt with and the factors that were at play are touched upon.

• published: 08 Aug 2015
• views: 3