Witness saw light, Oscar claims it was dark

Johan Stipp said he saw light through the frosted glass of Pistorius’s bathroom from the bedroom balcony of his townhouse shortly after 3am on February 14 last year, when he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel then read from the statement Pistorius submitted at his bail application.

“Everything was pitch dark… I was still too scared to switch on the light,” Nel read out to the court.

Stipp testified on Thursday that he woke up around 3am to what sounded like gunshots, then heard a woman screaming and then three more “bangs”.

Stipp said he could see one whole pane and the top half of the other two of the bathroom window. On Thursday Stipp testified that he saw the light was on and the “light silhouette of a person” moving behind the glass from right to left.

A vacant plot of land separates Stipp’s townhouse from the one Pistorius owned, in the Silver Woods Country Estate.

Court adjourned for tea at 10.45am.

Pistorius is accused of the murder of model and law graduate Steenkamp.

He is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and two counts 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.

In September 2010 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.

– Sapa