Van Staden has made an entrance. Looks like things will begin shortly.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

8:56 am
We're getting under way now.

The judge has taken her seat.

The police photographer is back again with more CDs of pictures.

Judge warning them not to ask for a tea break because of the delay.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Dianne Hawker
V.Staden says he actually had the master copies in his office, not on the clerk's computer as he initially thought.

V. Staden says he had to ask his superior in order to get the master copies of his photos.

Van Staden has brought several disks with him. Roux says he could ask about what is on the disks at a later stage.

Judge Masipa has arrived. Nel apologises for the late start. Van Staden was delayed after he went to fetch original photo data.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

9:31 am
Police crime scene photographer, Warrant Officer Bennie van Staden, is getting a grilling from Oscar Pistorius's defence lawyer Barry Roux.

Talking about whether a cricket bat was moved as it was being photographed, Roux asks the witness if he's ever played cricket.

He then goes on to give van Staden a cricket lesson before state prosecutor Gerrie Nel intervenes and claims Roux is "ridiculing" the witness.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

9:39 am
Update from our reporter in court, Lucy Thornton, on crime scene photographic evidence being put forward this morning:

"Roux seems to be in a bad mood today and is ticked off after "ridiculing" the police photographer giving evidence.

"Oscar Pistorius keeps busy taking notes in his book.

"Now back to photo 104 - a picture of a cocked gun, and an iPhone under a bathmat which has come apart from its cover. There is a pool of bright red blood to the left. The picture was taken at 6.14am.

"We turn to picture 105 where there is a wooden splinter on the handle - which is now at a different position on the bathmat "between the fold and the line" says Roux.

"Who changed the firearm?

"The photographer said the carpet underneath the firearm could have been 'shifted'.

"Who put the wooden splinter on the handle Roux asked? van Staden says 'No-one my lady, it could have been transferred'."

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

9:41 am
More tears from Oscar Pistorius.

He passes a note to his defence team.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

9:56 am
Pistorius's defence lawyer Barry Roux is building up to a crescendo about crime scene photographs.

He continues to cross-examine police photographer Bennie van Staden picture by picture.

Roux's point appears to be that when van Staden claimed he was taking photographs of the evidence alone, there were in fact other officers photographing the crime scene.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

10:26 am
Roux is suggesting that van Staden and Lt Col Motha from the Ballistics section of the South African Police Service were in the same room taking pictures.

His point is that there was confusion at the crime scene and he is attempting to cast doubt on the evidence.

11:04 am
We are still working through the photos of the crime scene today.

We've had close-ups of a blood-stained watch case, the toilet door, broken tiles, sandals, a cricket bat and a firearm.

There's a few internet problems in Pretoria today.

And now there's an adjournment.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

LUNCH

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Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

11:55 am
Back under way in court after lunch.

We're looking through the photographs with crime scene photographer Bennie van Staden in the dock.

Picture 106 shows a close-up of the iPhone being held by someone wearing a blue surgical glove.

We are now comparing the bathmat scene with blood pools and phone.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

12:08 pm
Defence lawyer Barry Roux is on form again today.

Here's a description of him from our reporter Lucy Thornton:

"You could be forgiven for thinking rottweiler lawyer Barry Roux has swapped the courtroom for the gym.

"The defence advocate behaves like a bullying aerobics instructor as he puts a state forensic witness through a gruelling workout.

"He tells the sweating, shirt-sleeved witness to bend, go on his knees, stand up, swing the bat...again and again and again."

And here's Sky's Alex Crawford tweeting today on his rope-a-dope style:
Roux is always so helpful just before he's about to deliver a verbal hammering

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Roux done... Nel gets another go

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

12:42 pm
Nel's enthusiastic re-examination of van Staden, the crime scene photographer is over.

But Roux is back on his feet.

"It's just one photo" he promises.

Roux asks about a hand in a blue glove snapped in the bathroom. He wants to know who it belongs to.

van Staden says he cannot say who the hand belongs to.

12:31 pm
Some straight questions and answers here to get our teeth into.

Nel gets to the point of what Roux was insinuating earlier in his questioning of the crime scene photographer van Staden.

Nel: "Did you change the scene?"

van Staden: "No."

12:31 pm
Some straight questions and answers here to get our teeth into.

Nel gets to the point of what Roux was insinuating earlier in his questioning of the crime scene photographer van Staden.

Nel: "Did you change the scene?"

van Staden: "No."

12:28 pm
More interpreter fun and games.

This morning one mistook the words master copies for Mastercard.

Now, an interpreter is CHEWING GUM in court.

Now I've seen a few things in court rooms in my time, but eating in front of the world's biggest live televised trial...

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

NEL... wants to quit now......

Lame excuse would rather start ballistics guy tomorrow and do it all in one go.

Judge says "NO!" (get on with it and stop faffing about, Nel)

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Captain Chris Mangena has been 20 years in the police and 19 years in the ballistic section.

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Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

12:54 pm
Captain Mangena says he was called to investigate the shooting on March 7th and received the door on the same day.

Mangena was tasked with analysing the bullet holes and trajectory of the shots.

He marked the four bullet holes a, b, c and d.

The next day, on March 8, he took door and went back to crime scene to reconstruct crime scene.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

1:13 pm
Captain Mangena asked for crime scene photos so he could see the crime scene originally when the photographer arrived there.

He then used a laser beam to determine the trajectory by shining it through the bullet holes into the toilet.

Mangena says the only thing absent from the scene when he arrived there was the magazine rack.

1:09 pm
The state has already indicated that Captain Mangena will say Oscar Pistorius was "further than 60 cms" from the toilet door when he fired.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Nel wants to stop again... nearly 3:30... they SURE don't work long hours

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light