Oscar’s defence challenged
Oscar Pistorius was accused of using as his defence the phrase "I didn't have time to think", the High Court in Pretoria heard on Thursday.
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
This was after he denied to prosecutor Gerrie Nel that he had his finger on the trigger of a Glock firearm he was holding under the table in Tasha’s restaurant in Melrose, Johannesburg, in January 2013.
The episode relates to charges against him under the Firearms Act to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Pistorius has admitted that his friend’s gun went off in his hand while he was holding it.
Pistorius said: “I didn’t pull the trigger, I didn’t have time to think, My Lady.”
Nel responded: “So that is one of your defences… ‘I’m a gun enthusiast. I didn’t have time to think’.”
Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp saying he shot without thinking towards a toilet door when he thought there were intruders coming into the house.
Cross-examined on Wednesday about the shooting, he said: “When I fired… I believed that someone was coming out of the toilet to attack me… I didn’t have time to think about what was happening.”
He later discovered Steenkamp was in the toilet. She died from being hit in the head, hip and thigh by three of the four bullets he fired.
– Sapa
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