Pistorius shot girlfriend in hip before head, court told

Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend first in the hip before hitting her fatally in the head through a locked toilet door, a police ballistics expert testified at the Paralympian’s murder trial in South Africa.

The ballistics report appears to support earlier testimony that Reeva Steenkamp had time to cry for help before she died and contradicts the defence team’s version that she could not have screamed.

The 27-year-old Paralympian sprinter says Steenkamp’s death was a terrible accident, and that he shot her through the locked door after he mistook her for an intruder when she went to the toilet.

The ballistics report will be key in the South African state’s case of premeditated murder against Pistorius.

“The best probable explanation is the deceased was initially upright behind the closed door, she sustained a penetrating wound in the right side of the hip,” the ballistics expert, Captain Chris Mangena, told the court.

The 29-year-old model then fell onto a magazine rack where bullets hit her elbow, hand, and head in uncertain order.

“The deceased was seated in a defensive position,” he said. “The arm was lifted up, and was in front of her chest.”

“You’ve both hands forward, with the left and right hand crossing the head?” asked prosecutor Gerrie Nel.

“That is correct,” his witness answered.

Steenkamp’s mother and relatives in the public gallery lowered their heads when graphic images of the blood-splattered bathroom were shown.

The court adjourned until Monday, after Nel asked for time to re-examine his final “four or five” witnesses before closing his case early next week.

The sequence of shots speaks to whether Steenkamp could have shouted during the shooting. Witnesses have testified to a woman’s shrieks, but the defence say she was hit first in the head and could not have made a sound.

Earlier, Mangena said the Paralympic gold medallist could have been as close as 60cm to the toilet door, or as far away as 3m, though he said 220 centimetres was the most likely position.

The distance from the door could shed light on whether Pistorius fired on the cubicle in a panic or approached it in a calculated plan to hit his target.