Prosecution: Pistorius’s forensic expert ‘out of depth’

The prosecution derided a forensic expert hired by Oscar Pistorius, accusing him of being unqualified to testify and rubbishing his account of the circumstances of Reeva Steenkamp’s death.

State prosecutor Gerrie Nel sought to prove that forensic geologist Roger Dixon was out of his depth when he was testifying about bruises on Steenkamp’s body and other key elements of the crime scene. Dixon, a university professor, told the court about the sound made by Pistorius’s cricket bat hitting his toilet door, visibility in the star sprinter’s bedroom and blood splatter.

Under intense pressure from Nel, Dixon described himself as a “layman,” a phrase the prosecutor seized on.