Oscar: “I never shouted at Reeva”

“Why would she be scared?” asked prosecutor Gerrie Nel, referring to an extract of a WhatsApp message she sent after an incident at a friend’s engagement party.

“I am scared of u sometimes and how you snap at me and how u will react to me,” wrote Steenkamp, according to evidence already presented in the High Court in Pretoria.

“She’s scared of the feelings she had for me… she’s obviously scared of the way I react to feeling she has sometimes,” said Pistorius.

Nel asked if he had ever shouted at her.

“No, I never shouted and screamed at her,” said Pistorius.

He was immediately taken to task over testimony by his former girlfriend Samantha Taylor who said there was a lot of “commotion” in their relationship and he denied shouting at her too.

He said he only shouted at her friend for bad behaviour at a party and accused her of lying.

“I did hear many things in Ms Taylor’s evidence that were lies, so I don’t think Mr Roux could keep up.”

Nel wanted to know why he did not ask his counsel Barry Roux SC to question Taylor on this in one of the many notes he was seen passing up to the defence when she was testifying.

“If it was true, Mr Roux would have cross-examined her up and down,” said Nel.

Pistorius has denied the charge of murder put to him and said he thought he was firing at an intruder when he shot through a toilet door killing Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day last year.

– Sapa