I'm actually feeling pretty disappointed about this case - I'm getting the Shrien Dewani feel about it, that he's going to be acquitted. I don't think van Niekerk got enough concessions out of Perumal, he was pretty adamant despite saying he never is, that the ligature was applied during life. The State don't have that in their scenario. I know the State had two pathologists, one of them being their chief with a lot of experience, but where you have competing opinions what do you do? Did they do enough to discredit Perumal? He certainly lied to the court about retrieving the bullet in Pistorius' toilet (the court record will bear that out) but that just shows he tried to big himself up. They showed he has been found to be wrong before and that he put stuff on his CV that was misleading. Is he a hired gun? I think there is something slightly off about him, he seems to be trying to please the court by showing his reasonableness but that doesn't quite succeed because they want a seasoned expert opinion, and the court must bear in mind who is paying him. He seems to be trying to please both sides because he has an eye on future business and to avoid a court finding against him. But he was sure about the parchment like appearance of the ligature mark on the left side of Susan's neck. I don't think he convinced court about the cut through the hyoid horn.
I don't think van Niekerk did enough about the blood in the stomach. I hope I'm wrong. According to Jason's story they went to bed around 3:30am and Susan was alive at 7:00am. Why would she still be swallowing cup fulls of blood over three hours later - he didn't put that time to Perumal on their estimated time of death, even though Perumal said he wouldn't be pressed on the time she ingested the blood before her death, it's obvious it wasn't over three hours in her stomach. He said it's possible it was half an hour or an hour. Well that means on their time of death she had a serious nose injury at around 6am.
The cut above her eye he didn't agree was likely made by falling on a wall and without other injuries to her knees and other prominences, and the blood spatter was as a result of a second impact on the cut. There are signs of a serious fight including whatever caused her to swallow so much blood twice, either a nose injury according to Perumal or lung injury according to the State, and grip marks on her neck, that are not explained as Jason describes it. Moving her aside by her neck (as if!) and throwing his arm back and catching her nose. He says he didn't see any blood from her nose after he did that. But even if the judge says there was a fight and he has lied about that, is that going to be enough to say it then progressed to him murdering her?
Things like calling Daniels to witness him finding the body instead of turning the lock himself, phoning Susan to create an impression of innocence, and whether the noose was tight or loose or she was naked or not are all majorly iffy, and he showed himself to be arrogant and argumentative in court, but are they enough for the court? I'm certain he's guilty but courts have to exercise more caution.
The placement of the stool is another one that shows he probably dragged her but can the defence say it was transferred outside the bathroom if no witness ever came forward and said they walked poo out of the bathroom and had to clean their shoe?
