Oscar trial enters second day

Oscar Pistorius's murder trial resumes on Tuesday in the North Gauteng High Court, in Pretoria. File picture: Mike Hutchings

Oscar Pistorius's murder trial resumes on Tuesday in the North Gauteng High Court, in Pretoria. File picture: Mike Hutchings

Published Mar 4, 2014

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Johannesburg -

The murder trial of Oscar Pistorius will continue in the North Gauteng High Court on Tuesday.

He is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on February 14 last year. Pistorius claims he mistook her for a burglar.

On Monday, the first witness said she heard a woman's “blood-curdling” screams coming from Pistorius’s house on the night of the shooting.

Michelle Burger took the stand shortly after Pistorius told the court he was pleading not guilty to the charge of premeditated murder and a string of lesser crimes in contravention of the Firearms Control Act.

Burger, who lives less than 200m from Pistorius's home, said she was awoken at 3am by a woman's escalating screams, followed by those of a man also crying for help.

Burger, who testified mostly in Afrikaans, said she believed she was listening to a robbery in progress. Her husband called security guards and asked them to investigate.

She was aggressively cross-examined by Pistorius's advocate, Barry Roux, who suggested her recollection was confused.

At one point, Roux put it to Burger that when Pistorius became anxious his voice rose as high as that of a woman, and, given the 177m distance between their homes in adjoining security estates, it was possible she failed to tell the difference. - Sapa

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