Pistorius didn’t scream when he saw Reeva

Pistorius shot Reeva Steenkamp, 29, through a locked toilet door on Valentine’s Day last year. He claims to have mistaken her for an intruder, and fired the shots by accident.

He has been charged with murdering Steenkamp.

Pistorius told the court he was screaming as he tried to break down the door to reach Steenkamp.

“Did you scream when you saw her?” Nel asked Pistorius.

“No, my lady,” he responded.

“For the first time of you seeing her, you didn’t scream?” Nel asked, adding that it must have been an unbelievable sight.

“You ran around screaming before but you didn’t scream when you saw her?” Nel continued.

“I didn’t see the purpose,” Pistorius answered.

Nel said Pistorius had stated this as he believed it corresponded with what several witnesses had testified.

At least two of the witnesses earlier told the court they heard screams before the shots but there were no screams after the shots.

“No, my lady,” Pistorius said, keeping his eyes focused on Judge Thokozile Masipa.

Nel also questioned him on the phone call he made to security of the estate on which he lived.

One security guard had testified that he called Pistorius and enquired about what was happening at his home.

The guard told the court Pistorius had told him there was “no problem”.

Pistorius disputed this, saying it “didn’t make sense” for him to tell the guard there was nothing wrong.

“I phoned him first then he phoned me back,” said Pistorius, trying to explain that he had approached security for help.

Picking at Pistorius’s testimony, Nel asked whether Pistorius had not accidentally called security and then hung up.

Nel told the court Pistorius’s version of events after he broke down the toilet door and reached Steenkamp had “little improbability”.

“You struggled with the version prior to the shots because they were tailored,” said Nel.

– Sapa