Africa

Home page

Africa

S. African police accused of incompetence, theft at Oscar Pistorius murder trial

14 March 2014 22:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Allegations of incompetence and possible theft by South African police emerged on the 10th day of the murder trial of South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. He admits he shot her dead on Feb.14, Valentine's Day, in 2013, thinking she was an intruder.

Former South African police colonel Schoombie van Rensburg, under cross-examination by Pistorius's lead advocate Barry Roux, admitted on Friday that two of the athlete's eight watches had disappeared from the crime scene during police investigations. He said he had opened an official case of theft and that all police and other personnel at the scene had been searched, to no avail.

One of the watches was taken by Pistorius's sister Aimee, who came to collect his clothes, but there was no trace of the other, reported to be valued at 10,000 U.S. dollars.

Asked by Roux to describe how he felt when hearing of the theft, Van Rensburg told the court: "I said, 'I can't believe it. We were just there. How can this watch be gone?'"