A star pathologist hired by Oscar Pistorius says he will not testify at the athlete's murder trial, in another blow for his defence after a week of savage cross-examination.
Private forensic pathologist Reggie Perumal - who joined Pistorius's hand-picked team soon after Reeva Steenkamp was killed on Valentine's Day morning 2013 - will not take the stand, amid suggestions his post-mortem findings support key parts of the prosecution's case.
Perumal was hired by Pistorius in time to attend the model's autopsy.
When asked if he would testify, the Durban-based pathologist told AFP "no, ma'am".
"I think you're aware that I can't say anything right now."
Perumal's absence from the witness box casts further doubt on the believability of Pistorius' story, after a week in which the Paralympic star and one of his hired experts were torn to shreds by prosecutor Gerrie Nel.
On Thursday, Nel hammered defence expert Roger Dixon, a forensic geologist who testified on key elements of the Pistorius crime scene, including the order of the bullets that hit Steenkamp.
Nel derided the quality of the expert's testimony, accusing him of "misleading" the court.
"I am not trying to mislead the court," Dixon said.
Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to intentionally killing Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and aspiring reality television star, saying he mistook her for an intruder in his upmarket Pretoria villa.
The state alleges the 27-year-old Olympian and Paralympic gold medallist shot his girlfriend in a fit of rage.
State pathologist Gert Saayman said vegetable matter in Steenkamp's stomach suggested she ate about two hours prior to her death at 3.17am, a finding that conflicts with Pistorius' version of events that the couple were peacefully asleep at that time.
"To the best of my recollection he was in agreement," said Saayman about Perumal.
"We must be, so to speak, on the same page before we leave the autopsy room," he said.
Instead of Perumal, the defence called Jan Botha, a former state pathologist who has carried out approximately 25000 autopsies.
Botha disputed Saayman's conclusion, saying that determining the time of death through gastric emptying is guesswork, calling it a "highly controversial and inexact science".
The trial has been adjourned until May 5.
