‘Don’t argue with me,’ Nel tells Pistorius

“Mr Pistorius, please answer the question. Don’t argue with me. If you argue or think about other evidence you will get into trouble,” Nel told Pistorius during cross-examination.

He was questioning the paralympic athlete about a statement submitted at his bail application that he went onto his balcony to bring a fan into his room.

This was in the early hours of February 14 last year, shortly before he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a locked toilet door, apparently thinking she was an intruder. He found her slumped over the toilet after he broke the door down. She was shot in the hip, arm, and head.

“I never went onto the balcony,” Pistorius told the court.

He said he placed a stainless steel fan, which was on a tripod, with one leg on the balcony tiles, the other two legs on his bedroom carpet. He said he placed a second fan on the carpet in front of the first.

“I went onto the balcony to bring a fan in,” Nel read from the statement.

Pistorius conceded that this was the case.

Court was adjourned for lunch.

Pistorius is charged with murder and 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