Pistorius quizzed on blue light in bedroom
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel showed an eye for detail on Friday while questioning Oscar Pistorius in the High Court in Pretoria about a small blue LED light in his bedroom.
State prosecutor Gerrie Nel gestures while paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is testifying during his trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday, 10 April 2014. Picture: Marco Longari/AFP/Pool
Pistorius said he woke up and got out of bed around 3am on February 14 last year to bring two fans into his bedroom from the balcony and cover a small blue light on his hi-fi with a pair of Reeva Steenkamp’s jeans.
He was being cross-examined by Nel.
“I took the fans in, closed the door and the curtains and took the jeans to cover the light, and then I heard a noise coming from the bathroom,” Pistorius said.
Asked why he wanted to cover the light, he said it was distracting him.
He is accused of deliberately killing model and law graduate Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse shortly after 3am on February 14.
He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to come out and attack him.
Pistorius claims at some point while he was busy with the fans Steenkamp got out of bed without him hearing and went to the bathroom.
“That was a sharp enough light to bother you in your sleep? Then it must illuminate the area otherwise it would not bother you?” Nel asked.
“I’m not sure, My Lady,” Pistorius replied.
He had claimed it was completely dark in the room.
Nel asked him why he had not done something to cover the light permanently in the past.
“You never took steps to change or cover it permanently,” Nel said.
Asked by Nel if the light woke him up, Pistorius said he was not sure what caused him to wake up.
“I don’t remember if I covered it because at that point I heard the noise,” Pistorius said.
He claims he heard the bathroom window sliding open, but not Steenkamp getting up. Nel then questioned him on this point.
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.
Pistorius has also denied guilt on these charges.
– Sapa
