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
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel read out an extract of Pistorius’s apology to the Steenkamp family from Monday and said: “The words ‘I’m sorry I killed your daughter’ were never in your apology.”
Breaking down, Pistorius said: “I’m terribly sorry that I took the life of their daughter.”
Nel responded: “Now you say it.”
Nel asked Pistorius if he wrote down his apology. The athlete said no.
Steenkamp’s mother June was in court with her lawyer Dup du Bruyn, a friend, and Steenkamp’s cousin.
Thursday was day 20 in his murder trial and his fourth day on the witness stand.
He shot Steenkamp through the locked toilet door of his Pretoria home on February 14 last year.
He said he mistook her for an intruder. He has pleaded not guilty to murder and in his plea statement denied he had argued with her shortly before the shooting.
He also faces two charges related to contravening the Firearms Control Act, to which he has denied guilt.
– Sapa
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