Pistorius Trial – Roux For the Defence

Pistorius Trial - Roux For the Defence

So who is Oscar Pistorius paying a rumoured £3,500 to defend  himself?  Barry Roux is a big name lawyer in South Africa and regarded as a master of cross examination.

His witness demolition has been compared to clubbing baby seals to death.

Roux already showed his abilities in court when he discredited police detective Hiilton Botha, who was forced to admit:  “I don’t have any facts” – hardly something a leading police witness in a leading homicide would wish to utter.

And so Roux obtained the bladerunner client his bail.

The International Business Times reports that Roux has spent 31 years defending high-profile and occasionally controversial clients, acquiring a tough reputation along the way. That has already been on display at Pistorius’s trial for murder, as witness Michell Burger was subjected to hours  of cross examination.

It occasionally appeared Roux was ignoring the dictum: ‘cross examination does not mean to examine crossly’ during terse exchanges.

Described in some quarters as a legal gun for hire, Roux reportedly once defended an Apartheid-era police chief who sued newspapers over claims he supplied toxic gas for use against black liberation activists. The size of the damages – as well as legal bills, forced one newspaper to shut down.

Roux also defended the man who ran up the largest unpaid tax bill in all South African history. Former Rangers FC director Dave King was accused of ignoring a bill for no less than 2.3bn Rand (£100 million), which was later drastically cut to around 700m Rand thanks in part of Roux’s representation.

Defending Oscar Pistorius looks set to be the biggest case of Roux’s high-profile career and the Paralympian appears to have chosen his Counsel well.

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