Reeva was never scared of Oscar, court told
Oscar Pistorius's girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was never scared of him, he told the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.
FILE PICTURE: June, Reeva Steenkamp’s mother, is comforted by unidentified relative afte her dead daughter’s picture was shown on screen during the trial of paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday, 9 April 2014. Pistorius sobbed in the witness stand on Tuesday as he described how, gripped by fear, he shot dead his girlfriend through a locked toilet door thinking she was an intruder. Picture: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters/Pool
“No, My Lady, Reeva was never scared of me, My Lady,” Pistorius said, replying to a question from prosecutor Gerrie Nel.
Nel had spent much of Thursday focusing on four WhatsApp messages, out of 1700 with Steenkamp, which showed disagreements with Pistorius.
In one she said she was sometimes scared of him and that he snapped at her. Pistorius said he may have snapped at her but he had never shouted or screamed at her.
He is charged with murdering her in the early hours of Valentine’s Day last year. He fired shots through a toilet door at his house, killing her. He has pleaded not guilty.
He also faces charges under the Firearms Act relating to the discharge of a friend’s firearm in Tasha’s restaurant in Melrose and allegedly firing a shot out of the sunroof of a car in Modderfontein.
Although he had the gun in his hand when it went off and had a firearm competency certificate, he has pleaded not guilty to the restaurant-related charge.
Nel called this a “miraculous” discharge and said Pistorius just asked his friend Darren Fresco to take the blame, again not taking responsibility for his actions.
In a message to Steenkamp, Pistorius asked her not to say anything about it because he feared that the media would report on it.
“My athletics is my job,” said the paralympic and Olympic star.
“People read things and interpret things. So I didn’t want this to be any where near the media.”
Nel said: “So you see, that is a good example of you not taking responsibility.”
Pistorius has denied the Modderfontein allegation.
He said he had offered to pay for damages to the restaurant owner, and that this was taking responsibility.
– Sapa
For more news your way
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
