Oscar Pistorius Murder Trial Update: Witness in Blade Runner Trial Says She Felt 'Attacked' on the Stand
One witness who testified during the Oscar Pistorius murder trial says she felt "attacked" on the witness stand.
Pistorius, a famed Paralympic athlete nicknamed the "Blade Runner," fatally shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Feb. 14, 2013. The pro-athlete pleaded not guilty to first degree murder, arguing that he shot her by mistake because he thought she was an intruder in his home. However, prosecutors in the high profile case say he killed her out of rage after the couple had an argument in the wee hours of Valentine's Day.
Thirty-seven witnesses testified in the 40 day-trial, which included high emotion and media blitz. However, one witness described stand that giving her testimony was "daunting."
"We feel trampled by a bus," Annette Stipp said in a recent interview with the South African Times newspaper. Because she and her husband were neighbors of Pistorius in the Silver Woods country estate in Pretoria, they were called to testify for the prosecution, where they discussed what they saw and heard on the day that the South African track star fatally shot killed his girlfriend.
However, Stipp described her experience giving evidence and the aftermath as "emotional, daunting and exhausting." She added that she felt "personally attacked" and would not want to go through it again.
After she testified that she heard a woman screaming on the morning of the killing, she underwent a harsh cross-examination. Defence counsel Barry Roux also called the testimonies of Stipp and her husband as "exaggerated and contradictory ... creates doubt as to [their] reliability," reports The Guardian.
"You feel you are being attacked personally. Your integrity is questioned. We felt that [we] were being attacked as [liars]," Stipp told the newspaper.
Pistorius "faces 25 years to life in prison if found guilty of premeditated murder," according to The Associated Press. He will be handed his verdict by a judge on Sept. 11.
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