Johannesburg – The State on Tuesday will begin its cross-examination of an acoustics expert who testified in the trial of murder-accused paralympian Oscar Pistorius.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel on Monday told the North Gauteng High Court he wanted to review Ivan Lin’s report before questioning him.

Lin on Monday gave a meticulous technical report on ambient noise on the morning Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his home on Valentine’s Day last year.

One of Pistorius’s neighbours, Michelle Burger, whose house is 177m from Pistorius’s, told the court in March she heard “blood-curdling screams” followed by four gunshots the morning Steenkamp was shot dead.

“At 177 metres away, if the scream was from a toilet, it is very unlikely that a listener can hear the scream, let alone interpret the sound source reliably,” Lin told the court.

“If the scream was from the bathroom the listeners may have heard the scream and may possibly be able to interpret the sound, under certain conditions,” he said.

Pistorius faces a murder charge. He claims he shot Steenkamp by accident through the locked door of his toilet in his Pretoria home, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to emerge and attack him.

The State argues he killed her during an argument.
SAPA