The Sunday News
PRETORIA – Murder-accused Paralympian Oscar Pistorius did not look for his girl friend Reeva Stenkamp before shooting four bullets through a locked toilet door, where he thought there was an intruder in his house, the Pretoria High Court heard on Friday.“You were right next to her in a situation of danger but you didn’t take the time to consult with her,” Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said during cross-examination of Pistorius.
Pistorius, who is being tried for the murder of Stenkamp, said he did not look for Stenkampt before shooting
On February 14 last year, Pistorius shot and killed Stenkamp through a locked toilet door after allegedly thinking there was an intruder who had entered his house through the toilet window.
Nel asked Pistorius why he did not first inform Reeva about the noise in the toilet since they were sleeping together on that night.
Pistorius defended his action, saying: “I said to Reeva get down and phone the police. I didn’t wait for a response . . . My whole being was fixated on this person I thought was in the bathroom.”
Nevertheless, Nel insisted, “A reasonable person would have looked where Reeva was to see if she was safe . . . but you just grabbed a gun.”
In his defence Pistorius told the court he believed Reeva was still in bed though admitting that he did not check if she was still sleeping when he started shooting.
He said he woke up at 3am on the morning of 14 February 2013 to bring two fans into his bedroom from the balcony and this was when he said he heard noise in the toilet which led to the shooting.
Nel also questioned the accused’s version that he reacted out of fear because there was previously a burglar at his home. Nel asked why he did not report those crime incidents to the police.
“I didn’t trust the police to be able to do anything about the situation,” Pistorius replied.
Judge Thokozile Masipa also cautioned Nel to watch his language after he called Pistorius a liar.
“Watch your language, Mr Nel. You don’t call the witness a liar, not while he is in the witness box,” Masipa ordered.
The position of Reeva’s jeans and the duvet they used that night also came under scrutiny.
When Nel told Pistorius that his version of events of that night does not make sense, the accused became emotional.
“Why are you getting emotional?” Nel asked Pistorius who quickly replied saying, “It’s a difficult time for me.”
Pistorius went on to explain that he did not understand why people did not see that Reeva was a person that he cared for so much.
In the earlier days of the trial, Pistorius told the court that he was on anti-depressants and a sleeping aid as a result of the strain caused by Reeva’s death.
Pistorius, however, insisted that on the day of the shooting he did not want to kill anyone, saying it was an accident.
“As I said, My Lady, I didn’t want to take anybody’s life. I screamed for the intruders to get out of my home.” – Xinhua
