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By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


Oscar queried about cellphone light

Murder-accused paralympian Oscar Pistorius would have seen Reeva Steenkamp use her cellphone light in his dark bedroom, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Monday.


“You would have seen it in your peripheral vision. It was pitch dark,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel told Pistorius during cross-examination.

He has told the court his girlfriend Steenkamp got out of bed in the dark without him noticing to go to the bathroom in the early hours of February 14 last year.

He then heard a noise from the bathroom, took his gun and went to investigate, apparently thinking Steenkamp was still in bed.

Pistorius fired four shots through the closed toilet door, apparently thinking an intruder was about to emerge and attack him. He has been charged with murdering her.

Nel asked on Monday: “Reeva going to the toilet, she would have had to walk down a dark passage into a dark bathroom. Why did she not turn on the light?”

Pistorius said she would have used the light of her cellphone.

When Nel said he would have seen the light moving down the passage, Pistorius replied that his back was to the passage.

According to the State, the shooting happened during an argument.

Pistorius is also charged with three contraventions of the Firearms Control Act, one of illegal possession of ammunition and two of discharging a firearm in public.

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.

Pistorius has also denied guilt on these three charges.

Sapa

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Gerrie Nel Oscar Trial Reeva Steenkamp

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