Oscar Pistorius blames himself for shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, he told the High Court in Pretoria on Monday.
FILE PICTURE: Oscar Pistorius wipes his face during his murder trial at the high court in Pretoria, Monday, 7 April 2014. Pistorius is charged with murder for the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentines Day in 2013. Picture: Themba Hadebe/AP/Pool
After some silence, Pistorius said during cross-examination: “I blame myself for taking Reeva’s life.”
He is charged with murdering Steenkamp in his Pretoria home on February 14 last year. He shot her through a locked toilet cubicle door. He claims to have mistaken her for an intruder.
On Monday, Pistorius said he acted out of fear, but maintained the shooting was an accident.
“If it was an intruder [behind the door], would it have been an accident?” prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked him.
“I think so, my lady,” Pistorius said.
Throughout his cross-examination, Pistorius has not once looked at Nel, maintaining his focus on presiding Judge Thokozile Masipa instead.
With his glasses in his hand and at times placing his hand on his hips, Nel continued to tear through Pistorius’s evidence.
In the court was a mock-up of the toilet cubicle in Pistorius’s home.
Looking at the marks where the bullets went through the door, Nel questioned Pistorius on why he had not aimed at the door handle if he thought the intruder was about to come out.
Pistorius said he was not aiming anywhere in particular.
– Sapa
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