Behind the scenes at the Oscar trial
Muffled laughter, the court artist and Barry Roux as celebrity. Here's our court reporter Khatija Nxedlana's behind-the-scenes look at what you might have missed while watching the Oscar Pistorius trial this week.
1. The muffled chuckles: there were giggles in court when Barry Roux and Barend Van Staden crossed swords over which was the front and back of a cricket bat. Journalists put their heads down to avoid catching the attention of the stern Judge Masipa, who in the first week famously ordered a journalist to stand up and explain the disruptive sounds emitting from her laptop (it sounded like Siri).
"Do you play cricket? Have you watched cricket?" Roux asked in a scathing tone.
Van Staden kept his cool though, instead putting it to Roux that different people regard different sides of the bat as the front or "back side".
2. The court artist: When you think about an artist, what comes to mind? Eccentric, stylish, good eye for detail... Well, court room GD has its very own artist, with his A3 sized sketch book in hand, he interchanges between two pencils as he draws the protagonists in court. With long black curly hair, scarf draped around his neck, he moves around the court room quite a lot, capturing the raw emotion not always visible on TV.
3. The metadata: For the layman, this line of questioning could possibly be summed up in one line: How accurately can a camera tell time? Barry Roux insists that the metadata (There's that word again. If you've forgotten, it's the information stored when a digital photo is taken), shows that two policemen took photographs at nearly the same time.
Put this alongside the state's claim yesterday that some photos were taken on March 8 and the stage seems to be set for a long battle over the binary.
If you want to follow that debate with a more informed ear, we recommend you read this "Litigator's Guide to Metadata" that we found online.
4. Barry Roux, celebrity: We've seen the signs for the past two weeks, and it's finally happened: someone's asked Barry Roux for his autograph. Here's a tweeted photo, supposedly of the signature, which he's said to have given somewhat sheepishly:
Barry Roux's autograph given to an adoring fan. The woman identified herself only as Alex and is very happy.@eNCAnews pic.twitter.com/WarirzJ3ED
— Dianne Hawker (@diannehawker) March 18, 2014
5. The new state witness on the stand, Chris Mangena: Ballistics expert, Kobus Steyl's told Newswatch that he expects Mangena's testimony to feature lasers and steel rods that will pinpoint the trajectory of bullets. Mangena is believed to have reconstructed the crime scene, and his testimony, for the first time, may give us a clearer understanding of the state's version of what happened in the Silverwoods Estate home on that tragic Valentines morning last year.
(Photo: Gallo Images)