Pretoria – An acoustic and electro-acoustic engineer testified in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial, in the North Gauteng High Court, on whether a scream was from a man or woman.

Pistorius’s lawyer Barry Rouw, called in Ivan Lin, to testify for the defence.

Witnesses have testified for the State they heard a woman scream from Pistorius’s house in the early hours of 14 February.

Pistorius’s defence has argued that when Pistorius is anxious, he screams like a woman.

In his testimony Lin said if listeners were 177m away on balcony and the sound came from the bathroom, sound would have been audible and intelligible, but if they in bedroom and sound came from bathroom, sound would not have been audible or intelligible.

According to the first witness to testify in the trial, neighbour Michelle Burger, who lived 177m away, claimed she heard a woman’s “blood-curdling screams”.

The Paralympian shot Steenkamp through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to open the door and attack him.

She was struck in the hip, arm, and head. After firing the shots, Pistorius used a cricket bat to break open the door to get to a dying Steenkamp.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charge of the murder as well as not guilty to various firearm-related charges.

Earlier,  Judge Thokozile Masipa ordered that police officers explain how an extension cord went missing from murder accused Oscar Pistorius’s house.

The cord disappeared from the house where Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on 14 February last year. It appears on police photos of the crime scene. Pistorius is on trial, charged with murdering Steenkamp.

“The house was locked and there was no burglary. It cannot walk. It may not assist Mr Barry Roux, but it will certainly assist me because I am very unhappy about it,” Masipa said.

Roux had told the court the defence’s efforts to get the cable from the State had been in vain.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said after intensive searches the cable was not found. He said it would be impossible to go and search the house because it had been sold.

He said the cord was not on the inventory of items police seized from Pistorius’s house.

“Yes it was in the house as seen on the photographs. It was not in the same position on the 14th and 15th [of February 2013]. Where it is, did somebody take it? I cannot answer,” said Nel.

“I am answering on behalf of the police. I am standing here with the investigating officer.”

Masipa ordered that police officers who sealed the crime scene depose affidavits about the cord.

SAPA