Oscar faces Nel for sixth day

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel addresses Oscar Pistorius in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on April 10, 2014. Picture: Werner Beukes

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel addresses Oscar Pistorius in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on April 10, 2014. Picture: Werner Beukes

Published Apr 14, 2014

Share

Johannesburg -

Gerrie Nel is expected to continue cross-examining Oscar Pistorius when his murder trial resumes in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Monday.

It would mark the Paralympian's sixth day facing Nel, with the prosecutor grinding away at Pistorius’s claim that he thought his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, was an intruder hiding in his toilet.

Pistorius shot four times through the closed door, apparently thinking the intruder was about to emerge and attack him, shortly after 3am on February 14 last year. Steenkamp was struck in the hip, arm and head.

Last week, Nel began chipping away at Pistorius’s claim that an intruder would slip into his house and walk into his toilet, that he did not ask Steenkamp if she had heard the bathroom window slide open, and that he had not noticed her getting out of bed to go to the toilet.

“A reasonable person would have looked where Reeva was to see if she was safe... but you just grabbed a gun,” Nel said to him on Friday.

Pistorius replied: “I was not right next to her when I heard the noise. I was on the other side of the bed.”

According to Pistorius, he got out of bed to bring two electric fans from his balcony into his bedroom and toss a pair of jeans over an LED light on an amplifier that was bothering him.

In the process, he heard his bathroom window slide open, got his 9mm pistol and went towards the source of the noise. He however did not hear Steenkamp getting out of bed metres from him, claiming his back was to the room and the fans were blowing in his face.

Nel closed the State's case on March 25.

Barry Roux, for Pistorius, said the defence could call up to 17 witnesses. - Sapa

Related Topics: