Prosecutor in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial has told the world-famous athlete that he fatally shot his girlfriend through a toilet door as they were talking.
Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel insists that Pistorius intentionally killed Reeva Steenkamp and put it Friday, during cross-examination of the double-amputee Olympian that “she was standing behind the toilet door talking to you when you shot her.”
Pistorius denied Nel’s claim, saying “that’s not true” in a dramatic exchange to end the first week of the runner’s testimony at his trial.
Nel says the “only reasonable explanation” for the shooting last year is that Pistorius killed the model after a fight.
Pistorius claims he shot Steenkamp by mistake thinking she was a night-time intruder behind a toilet door in his bathroom.
Earlier the prosecution angrily accused Pistorius of tailoring evidence and overplaying his deep fear of crime to justify shooting dead Steenkamp.
During a third day of stern cross-examination, prosecutor Gerrie Nel insisted that the 27-year-old Pistorius was selective in his recollection of events.
Amid volley after volley of questions about the minutiae of what happened that Valentine’s Day night and over apparent discrepancies in Pistorius’s accounts, the sprinter grew increasingly agitated.
“I’m not looking for an excuse, if I don’t remember it I don’t remember it!” Pistorius said, breaking down during one exchange about the placement of objects in his bedroom.
“This is the night I lost the person I most cared about, I don’t know how people don’t understand that,” he said through sobs.
Nel had accused him of changing his version of events and of not remembering details that could be detrimental to the athlete’s case.
“Why are you changing your evidence?” Nel asked.
“I’m tired my lady,” Pistorius said.
“I’m not convinced about your answer now, I think you’re trying to cover up for lies,” Nel said accusingly.
Nel also tried to show that Pistorius was not as concerned about crime as he claimed because he did not quickly fix a broken window and may not have turned on his house alarm the night the 29-year-old model was killed.
“Did you ever go into a police station and complain about anything?” asked Nel, after Pistorius listed the many times he had been a victim of crime.
“No, I did not,” Pistorius admitted, “except for the police stealing my watches my lady,” he said referring to luxury watches that went missing at the Steenkamp death scene.
June Steenkamp’s lawyer confirmed the request, Nel told the court. “But they weren’t ready.” “Mrs Steenkamp felt it was important to be put on the record,” he said. June Steenkamp has been hard on Pistorius and was quoted in a newspaper this week saying the athlete had gone from “hero to devil” after killing her daughter.
“My presence unnerves him, I’m sure of it. He’s answerable to me,” Steenkamp told Britain’s Daily Mirror.
– ‘It’s so impossible’ — today marked a difficult week on the stand for the accused, during which he has been accused of lying and fabricating evidence.
“Your version is so improbable that nobody would ever think it’s reasonably, possibly true it’s so impossible,” Nel thundered during the cross-examination.
“Your version … is a lie,” he insisted.
