Gerrie Nel has not been holding back during his cross-examination of Oscar Pistorius. We have seen a lot of crying, puking and theatrics from Oscar, but was the half a minute silence while he was on the stand last week a sign that he was about to crack?

Last week Gerrie Nel posed the question: “Are you sure, Mr Pistorius, that Reeva didn’t scream after you fired the first shot?” Thirty-one seconds of silence followed as Oscar slumped back into his chair. All that can be heard during that time on the audio recording of the trial is Nel asking “Are you sure?” after five seconds, and a man breathing deeply after 11 seconds.

Nel was the one who came to Oscar’s rescue, breaking the silence with, “My Lady, I’m ­giving the witness time to console himself, he is distressed.” Former prosecutors and lawyers said that Nel made a mistake by doing so – who knows how long the silence would have continued. He should rather have asked Pistorius why he took so long to answer the question, the legal experts claim.

To read more about the 31 seconds of silence, click here.

[ Source : CityPress ]