Prosecutor slams ‘deceitful’ Oscar Pistorius

Pretoria (South Africa): A South African prosecutor branded Oscar Pistorius “deceitful” and insisted the Paralympian cannot avoid a conviction for murdering his glamorous model girlfriend, as the state closed its case against him on Thursday.

“Pitbull” prosecutor Gerrie Nel said that even if the court accepts Pistorius’s claim he killed Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day last year believing she was an intruder, “he cannot escape” a conviction for murdering with intent.

Ending the first of two days of concluding arguments in the gripping five-month murder trial, Nel said Pistorius’s efforts to concoct an alibi had led to a “snowball effect” of lies requiring more lies to back them up.

“In an attempt to tailor his version to support his plea explanation, he tangled himself in a web,” said Nel. “It is the state’s case the accused was a deceitful witness,” said Nel, describing Pistorius’s testimony as “absolutely devoid of any truth”.

Initially, Pistorius said he shot Steenkamp through a toilet door, believing her to be an intruder.

However under intense cross-examination, he said he accidentally shot his girlfriend as a result of deep-seated anxiety caused by his disability and did not mean to kill anyone.

Nel argued that even if Judge Thokozile Masipa believes Pistorius’s claim that he accidentally shot at an intruder, he must be found guilty. “We argue that even in the event of the court accepting the accused’s evidence that he thought there was an intruder in the toilet, he cannot escape a conviction on murder with dolus directus (direct intent).”