Pistorius told to look at picture of dead girlfriend
Print Edition
A South African prosecutor tried to force Oscar Pistorius yesterday to look at a forensic photograph that showed the head of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp after it was blown open by a bullet fired by the Olympic and Paralympic track star.
In a dramatic opening to his cross-examination of Pistorius, prosecutor Gerrie Nel made him admit he had killed Steenkamp, then confronted him with the picture of the side and back of her skull, her hair matted with blood and brains.
“Have a look there. I know you don’t want to because you don’t want to take responsibility,” Nel said to gasps from the packed public gallery.
“Take responsibility for what you have done,” Nel persisted, his voice rising.
Pistorius responded by burying his head in his hands in the witness stand, rocking from side to side and weeping.
He acknowledged responsibility but refused to lift his head. “I don’t have to look at a picture, I was there,” said Pistorius.
The double amputee sprinter faces life in prison if convicted in the Pretoria High Court of the murder of Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model.
His defence hinges on his contention that he thought he was firing at an intruder when he shot Steenkamp through a toilet door in his Pretoria home on February 14 last year.
In the trial, Nel has sought to show the 27-year-old as a gun-obsessed hot-head.
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