‘I love you’, Reeva tells Oscar

“I think today is a good day to tell you that I love you, she wrote in a Valentine’s Day card she gave her boyfriend before her death on February 14 last year.

Pistorius has been charged with murdering Steenkamp. He shot her through a locked toilet door in his townhouse.

He claims he mistook her for an intruder, and the shots were an accident.

During his trial in the High Court in Pretoria, the court heard this was the first time Steenkamp had told Pistorius she loved him.

Steenkamp gave Pistorius his gift on February 13, 2013, telling him not to open it until the next day.

The card was presented to the court as part of Pistorius’s re-examination on Tuesday.

After a tough cross-examination by prosecutor Gerrie Nel, Pistorius seemed calmer and more composed as he answered questions posed by his counsel Barry Roux, SC.

During the re-examination, Roux presented a picture where Steenkamp’s jeans were seen on the bedroom floor of Pistorius’s home.

The jeans were the right-way round with the belt loops clearly visible.

Roux referred the court to another picture where the jeans had been turned inside-out.

Earlier, Nel had questioned Pistorius why Steenkamp, a seemingly neat person, would have left the jeans turned inside out.

“Did she not take it off quickly and not have time [to turn it the right way round],” Nel asked.

Pistorius said he did not know why Steenkamp had left her jeans that way.

The Pistorius family, who has comforted Pistorius throughout the trial, also seemed relieved after Nel’s cross-examination.

During a brief adjournment, Pistorius’s sister Aimee walked up to Pistorius where he hugged her.

He then smiled and wiped her eye, using his finger.

The siblings had shared tears as Pistorius broke down numerous times while in the witness box.

Pistorius contends he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he fired four shots through the toilet door.

The State argued it was not a mistake.

The paralympian also faces three charges of contravening the Firearms Control Act, on which he has also denied guilt.

– Sapa