Prosecutor Gerrie Nel was undertaking a line-by-line examination of WhatsApp messages Steenkamp sent to Pistorius in early 2013, weeks before he shot her dead. He is on trial for murder.
“I’m the girl who fell in love with you and wanted to tell you this weekend,” Nel quoted one of her messages.
He asked Pistorius during cross-examination why he did not reply to this.
“Wasn’t that a significant event in your relationship? Why didn’t you deal with that? You didn’t care,” Nel said, answering his own question.
“Because it’s all about Mr Pistorius. That’s what your relationship was about,” he said, continuing his line of argument that the athlete was selfish and often blamed her for things that annoyed him.
“When I read that message I was extremely upset. It was the first time that she had mentioned love to me,” Pistorius replied.
Nel continued to another message: “I get snapped at and told my accent and voices are annoying.”
“What was that about?” asked Nel.
Pistorius paused for several seconds before replying that he was discussing a house he wanted to buy in Johannesburg.
“She was talking in an accent the whole time and it annoyed me,” he said.
Nel again accused him of being selfish.
“I, Oscar was talking about my house and it’s important to me that she listens to me… It’s again about me, Oscar Pistorius.”
Pistorius is accused of the murder of Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse on February 14 last year. He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder. She was struck in the hip, arm and head.
He is also charged with contraventions of the Firearms Control Act. 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.
– Sapa
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