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By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


Oscar trial: ‘Intruder’ not given a chance to leave

Murder-accused Oscar Pistorius acknowledged on Monday that he never gave whoever was in his toilet cubicle a chance to leave before he started shooting at the door.


Cross-examining Pistorius in the High Court in Pretoria, Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said: “You said, ‘get out’ but never gave them a chance to get.”

Pistorius: “Yes, my lady.”

Nel: “You gave them no chance, you just fired?”

Pistorius: “That’s correct.”

He agreed that he did not know how many people were in there, whether they were armed or how he expected them to get out.

“I wasn’t thinking of how they’d get out,” he said.

Pistorius fired four shots through the locked toilet door on his Pretoria home on February 14 last year, killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius has been charged with murdering her. He says he mistook her for an intruder.

Pistorius told the court on Monday he was not aiming anywhere in particular as he fired the shots.

“The pathologist said the shots were grouped,” Nel said to Pistorius.

He asked whether Pistorius had discussed the evidence with the ballistic officials.

Pistorius said “No.”

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 also denied guilt on these charges.

Sapa

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