World 12 Ashburton Guardian
www.guardianonline.co.nz
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
■ SOUTH AFRICA
In brief
Pistorius ‘torn apart’ By Stephanie Findlay Oscar Pistorius’ murder trial has resumed with a neighbour and friend giving a heart-wrenching account of finding the “broken” athlete coming down the stairs, holding his dead girlfriend in his arms. After a two-week break in the trial, the Pistorius defence yesterday called Johan Stander, the first man to arrive at the crime scene after the Paralympic gold medallist shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day last year. “Oom (Afrikaans for uncle) Johan, please, please, please come to my house, I shot Reeva,” Stander says Pistorius told him over the phone. When he arrived at Pistorius’ upmarket Pretoria home, Stander described seeing the athlete carrying Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law graduate, down the stairs. “He was screaming, he was crying, he was praying,” said Stander, a man with grey hair and glasses who spoke in a hoarse voice. “The expression on his face, an expression of sorrow, an expression of pain, he’s crying, he’s praying,” said Stander. “It was as if he was torn apart.” Pistorius’ lawyers will spend at least the next two weeks trying to firm up the athlete’s account of the killing and counter the state’s claim he shot his girlfriend after an argument. Under days of ferocious crossexamination last month, Pistorius appeared to change his defence,
casting doubt on his credibility. The runner initially told the court that he shot Steenkamp through a locked toilet door, thinking she was an intruder coming to attack him in the dead of night. But buckling under pressure, the Paralympian - who soared to international fame as the first doubleamputee to run against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 London Olympics - changed his testimony to say he fired the four shots accidentally. State prosecutor Gerrie Nel has accused the athlete of “tailoring” his evidence, calling his account of the killing “a lie”. “Your version... is a lie,” said Nel, who has earned himself the moniker “pit bull” because of his aggressive style of questioning. Beginning his cross-examination of Stander, Nel asked him if Pistorius ever said to him if he shot the so-called intruder by mistake. “He never said I accidentally shot her,” said Nel. “He said ... thought she was an intruder.” Pistorius, nicknamed “Blade Runner,” faces up to 25 years in prison if he is found guilty of premeditated murder. Among the witnesses expected to give evidence this week is a psychologist who will speak to the athlete’s physical vulnerability, after details emerged in court of his obsession with guns. At times, the world famous sprinter has wept and retched in court, in a trial that is being broad- Oscar Pistorius (right), is comforted by his brother, Carl - AFP Pistorius, inside court in Pretoria yesterday. cast live on television. ap photo
■ AUSTRALIA
Abuse ‘not seen as a crime’ By eoin Blackwell The Christian Brothers regarded the physical and sexual abuse of children as abhorrent and a moral failing but not a criminal offence, a royal commission has been told. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has also heard double jeopardy laws prevented other men from coming forward to tell of their abuse at the hands of a Brother Dick, who was sentenced to three and a half years after confessing to abusing five “unknown” children. Allegations of child sex abuse were not passed on to police because the order did not see them as a criminal matter. “All I can assume, understand, is that there was a mindset that didn’t see this first and
foremost as a crime; that it was something of a moral failing, contributing to the corruption of the child,” Brother Anthony Shanahan, the order’s former provincial leader for WA and SA, said yesterday. “I think they saw it as something that was abhorrent, harmful, although I don’t think they understood it as harmful in the way we would now, in terms of consequences for the victim.” The commission last week heard from 11 men physically and sexually abused at four WA Christian Brothers residences at Tardun, Bindoon, Clontarf and Castledare between 1947 and 1968. Justice McClellan asked Br Shanahan if he thought it extraordinary that the order did not view sex abuse as a criminal offence. “Yes,” he replied.
“Can you explain how the order would have brought themselves intellectually to that position?” Justice McClellan asked. “No, I can’t explain it,” Br Shanahan said. Br Shanahan said there existed a pattern where an accused brother would be transferred. Christian Brothers who were accused of sexual abuse were still allowed to work with children by being sent to day schools where there would be less opportunity to offend. “There was a pattern, I think - not completely in 100 per cent of cases, but I think it’s a pattern where there was a complaint the person would be transferred to a day school and not a residential school,” he said. When asked by Council assisting the commission Gail Furness if Br Shanahan’s pre-
decessors knew of the underlying conduct that led to the transfer, he replied: “Probably, yes.” The commission also heard a series of documented sex abuse allegations dating back to 1919, some against brothers who were shifted to other schools around the country. Last week an abuse survivor, Edward Delaney, said after he told the superior at Bindoon, Brother Bruno Doyle, of his abuse at the hands of a Brother Parker, he was informed the man had been transferred to Tasmania and was told not to talk about it. Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Bruno Fiannaca told the commission the 1994 conviction of Br Dick prohibited others from coming forward in the courts. The hearings continue. - AAP
Celebs boycott hotels Celebrities including Virgin group founder Richard Branson have vowed to boycott a hotel chain linked to Brunei’s ruler after he introduced a controversial Islamic penal code in his country. Brunei’s all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah announced last Wednesday that he would push ahead with the sharia law that will eventually include tough penalties such as death by stoning. “No @ Virgin employee, nor our family, will stay at Dorchester Hotels until the Sultan abides by basic human rights,” the British billionaire posted on Twitter. - AFP
War games launched Thousands of American and Philippine troops have launched large annual exercises, with Australian troops invited to take part. The exercises began yesterday after US President Barack Obama vowed “ironclad” backing for its Asian ally, locked in a tense maritime row with China. Filipino Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the 10-day drills were necessary to deal with the challenge of “aggressive” neighbours intent on “changing the status quo”. - AFP
MH370 search review A who’s who of aviation experts will meet in Canberra next Wednesday to scour data collected in the search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. The expert panel will review data as part of the new phase in the search for the missing aircraft. The panel will also identify specific equipment needs as the search continues on the seabed, which will involve mapping previously uncharted parts of the southern Indian Ocean’s seafloor. The new search phase will cost an estimated $60 million. - AAP
Ship sinks; 11 missing Eleven crew members from a Chinese cargo ship are missing after it collided with a container vessel and sank just outside Hong Kong waters, authorities say. The collision happened in the early hours of the morning near Po Toi Island which lies on the edge of Hong Kong’s territory, a fire department spokesman said yesterday. “Two cargo ships collided and one of them sank,” a police spokeswoman said. - AFP
Quake rattles Tokyo A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake has shaken buildings in Tokyo, lightly injuring 17 people, but there was no risk of a tsunami. Tokyo inhabitants - set to enjoy a national holiday - were woken shortly after dawn yesterday by the quake, which jolted the densely-built apartments and office blocks. - AFP
Nets to catch bodies South Korean recovery workers have strengthened a ring of netting around a submerged ferry, in a bid to prevent corpses drifting out to open sea, as dive teams recovered 11 more bodies, raising the death toll to 259. The latest bodies were found during a pre-dawn operation yesterday, but 43 people remain unaccounted for. Last week, bodies were retrieved up to four kilometres away from the recovery site. - AFP