Steenkamp used to pray for Oscar
Reeva Steenkamp used to pray for Oscar Pistorius, the High Court in Pretoria heard at his murder trial on Friday.
FILE PICTURE: June, mother of Reeva Steenkamp, (2nd from L) looks on as paralympian Oscar Pistorius is cross-examined at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Wednesday, 9 April 2014. Picture: Sydney Seshibedi/The Times/Pool
“She prayed with me,” he told the court as prosecutor Gerrie Nel questioned him about the Christianity aspect of their relationship.
She also prayed to “be a better person”.
She prayed for his performance at athletics meetings where the double-amputee was a star-performer on his carbon-fibre prosthetic “blades”.
He confirmed Nel’s description that she always prayed for the “small things”.
Nel said that he found the way Pistorius had given evidence on Thursday “very interesting” and commented that Pistorius’s response of the way Steenkamp prayed “now cut my cross-examination in half”.
Nel immediately cut to juxtaposing Pistorius’s testimony of his fear of crime caused by his first hand experiences and experiences of people close to him, to no sign of official reports to police of these crimes.
He wanted to know, for example, why he did not report the theft of a television set from his house after a trip.
Pistorius said he did not report the theft because he was not insured and did not think there would be any point.
He did not park his car in his garage at his home in Pretoria because he did not think anyone would steal anything from it, he replied to Nel’s question.
He has testified to incidents such as helping a man who had been attacked on the road and being followed home.
The only crime reported at a police station was: “I had a case against the SA Police Service for wrongful arrest in 2009,” he said.
He added that he also reported the theft of watches from his house “by the police” after Steenkamp was shot.
“Did you ever report crime at a police station?” asked Nel.
“No, I did not My Lady.”
His friend Justin Devaris, who said he had connections with the police, organised a meeting with the Hawks when he said he was assaulted in December 2013.
Pistorius shot Steenkamp through a toilet door at his home.
In his bail application he said he had a heightened sense of fear of crime when he fired the shots thinking there was an intruder in the house. He is charged with murder.
Pistorius is also charged with three contraventions of the Firearms Control Act, one of illegal possession of ammunition and two of discharging a firearm in public.
He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.
On September 30, 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
– Sapa
