A neighbour of Oscar Pistorius has testified at his murder trial that she heard gunshots as well as screams from both a man and a woman on the night that the double-amputee runner fatally shot his girlfriend.
The testimony by Anette Stipp matched some of the testimony by other witnesses who have said they also heard a woman screaming around the time that Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp before dawn on February 14, 2013.
The defence has countered that the neighbours were actually hearing Pistorius screaming in a high-pitched voice after he shot Ms Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model. Pistorius has said he shot his girlfriend by mistake through a locked toilet door, thinking that she was an intruder in his home.
Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel opened today’s court session in Pretoria by noting evidence will include analysis of mobile telephones, including two that were removed from the bathroom where the shooting happened.
Investigators had been chasing information on Pistorius’s locked iPhone for months and met Apple officials in the United States just before the trial started on March 3. Pistorius has said he forgot the password to his phone.
Mrs Stipp said under questioning from Mr Nel that she heard gunshots while lying awake at around 3am on the night of the shooting, and then heard the “terrified, terrified” screams of a woman.
“The screaming at that stage just continued,” said Mrs Stipp, who recalled looking out from a balcony at two houses with lights on in the gated estate where her family and Pistorius lived.
She said she told her husband Johan, who previously testified, that the screaming sounded as though a “family murder” had taken place.
“There was definitely a female screaming for quite a period,” Mrs Stipp said. “You could definitely hear two different voices.”
She said she then heard a second set of shots, and the screaming stopped.
The defence has said that Pistorius fired into the door and then battered the door with a cricket bat to get to Ms Steenkamp after realising she was inside the toilet cubicle. Defence lawyer Barry Roux insists that some neighbours who testified mistook the sound of the cricket bat striking the door for gunshots.
Defence lawyer Kenneth Oldwadge pressed Mrs Stipp on her recollections of that night, questioning whether she was inside her house or on a balcony while hearing what she said were shots and screams, and whether she was alert because she had said she was slightly ill at the time.
Mr Nel has said he will wrap up his case against Pistorius this week after calling four or five more witnesses to support his contention that the Olympian intentionally killed Ms Steenkamp after an argument. The defence will then present its case.
Judicial officials say the trial will continue until May 16, with a recess in April.