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Roux says he will begin by pointing out “material mistakes” in the state’s closing argument.

He says he was waiting for the state to tell the court what were the first noises heard by neighbours (see below for more on this). The state says shots were fired at 3.17am; the defence says this noise was the cricket bat on the door, and earlier sounds were the shots. The state has not explained what it thinks the earlier noises were.

Roux says the state has tried to ignore this discrepancy because it would prompt a “nosedive” in its case.

Roux also takes issue with Nel’s claim that he only once called Pistorius a liar. He reads a list of pages from the transcript in which he says Nel told the accused he was lying.

And he also queries Nel’s claim that he was not obliged to call all witnesses on the state’s list. He says Van Staden and Van Rensburg did their best to create the impression that they worked alone upstairs, even though the state was in possession of affidavits from other police officers who were there.

We know that Hilton Botha was the investigating officer. We also know … that he told blatant lies to incriminate the accused … And we know he was in the bedroom.

(Botha was sacked after being charged with seven counts of attempted murder himself.)


Roux says the defence is not claiming there was a conspiracy by police officers to tamper with the scene, but they messed up: things were moved.

(Police officers have already been accused of stealing Pistorius’ watches.)

He also reminds that judge that the state does not have a right to reply to the defence argument on facts, only on points of law.