Friday 8 August 2014 18:19, UK
Oscar Pistorius’ lawyer Barry Roux gave the last defence of his client on Friday as the case into the murder of Reeva Steenkamp reached its closing stages.
Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa will begin to give her verdict on September 11, it has been confirmed, and will spend the next several weeks writing her report.
Following prosecutor Gerrie Nel’s final statement on Thursday in which he branded Pistorius "deceitful" and insisted he cannot avoid a conviction for deliberate murder, Roux focused his attention on the Paralympian’s vulnerability.
The defence has sought to portray him as a "highly-vulnerable individual" obsessed with safety - a result of a difficult childhood and his disability - in a country with a high crime rate.
Roux also attempted to expose the state’s prosecution as flawed and inconsistent, and answered key questions in the trial such as why Pistorius chose to confront what he thought was an intruder instead of fleeing perceived danger.
Roux told the court in Pretoria: “The prosecutor says, on an analysis of everything that he submitted to the court, that the defendant never activated the alarm that evening.
“But then, when it suited him, he changed the story. He says ‘I don’t believe the deceased could have gone downstairs to eat because then she had to deactivate the alarm’.
“Was the alarm on or off in this case? When it suited him, it was off. When it suited him later, to dispel her position, then he turns it on again.
“That cannot be. You have to be consistent in your approach. The constant reminder; ‘I do not have legs, I cannot run away, I am not the same’ - that’s with the defendant. He can’t pretend that it’s fine, that he’s wonderful with his legs on.
“That’s what the professor was saying and I invite you to look at that part - we have two Oscars. We must understand the anxiety, that if you’re vulnerable you don’t go to bed and can’t sleep, and lie awake.
“The moment you confront danger or perceived danger then it comes to the fore. You are compromised because of the anxiety, because of your real position.”
The first option open to Judge Masipa is pre-meditated murder, with which Pistorius is currently charged and carries a minimum term sentence of 25 years in prison.
For that she needs to believe that he planned and intended to kill Steenkamp, dismissing his case that he mistook her for an intruder.
However, should she find him not guilty of the above, she will consider a lesser charge of culpable homicide, which is similar to that of manslaughter in Great Britain, and carries a minimum term sentence of 15 years in prison.
Pistorius has denied the charge of pre-meditated murder throughout the trial, in which he has at times sat weeping and vomiting in the dock as details of Steenkamp's death were presented.
