US forensic team working on Pistorius defence

Oscar Pistorius’s lawyers are working with a team of American forensic specialists in the preparation of the double-amputee Olympian’s defence, and will likely counter any evidence given by the nearly 50 police officers and criminal experts that prosecutors could call at his murder trial early next year.

The US forensic team is now in South Africa, Pistorius’s spokeswoman said, although she could not give any details of their identities or areas of expertise, or if they would stay for the trial, which begins in March and has been scheduled to last just over two weeks.

Pistorius will go on trial at the North Gauteng High Court in the South African capital Pretoria from March 3, accused of premeditated murder in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his house on February 14.