By Nick Butler

Oscar Pistorius on day eight of his murder trial ©AFP/Getty ImagesMarch 12 - Oscar Pistorius broke down a locked toilet door with a cricket bat when on the stumps of his amputated legs rather than when wearing his prosphetic ones, the court at his murder trial in Pretoria was told today.


Police forensic expert J.G. Vermeulen explained this by interpreting marks on a cricket bat and a bent steel plate found in the bathroom door after the Paralympian shot model Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year.

Wielding the cricket bat in his hands, Vermuelen squatted down before swinging it at the actual wooden door in a reconstruction designed to show the angle of the marks

"From the forensic evidence, he was on his stumps," Vermeulen concluded. .

This counters Pistorius' claim they he did not have his prosthetics on when he shot at the toilet door after hearing a noise, but then put them on when he tried to break open the door, realising his girlfriend may be inside.

Police forensic expert Colonel Johannes Vermeulen re-enacts the breaking of the bathroom door by Oscar Pistorius ©AFP/Getty ImagesPolice forensic expert Colonel Johannes Vermeulen re-enacted the breaking of the bathroom door by Oscar Pistorius ©AFP/Getty Images



Pistorius is accused of murdering girlfriend Steenkamp after he shot her three times through a bathroom door but although although the 27-year-old admits to shooting her, he insists he did so inadvertently after mistaking her for an intruder in their Pretoria home.

Both sides of the case argue that the trajectory of the bullets fired through the door can show whether it was premeditated murder or not and Pistorius, who took notes and drew sketches during the testimony, covered his eyes with his hand when a photo of a panel of the blood-spattered door was shown.

This follows evidence provided over the first seven days of the trial in which neighbours described hearing screams on the night in question, while friends and a former girlfriend outlined other occasions in which Pistorius revealed his "love for guns".

The trial continues.

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