South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has denied "picking on" his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, as his cross-examination continues.
He was commenting on a mobile phone message Ms Steenkamp sent him.
The prosecution has been trying to portray Mr Pistorius as self-obsessed and negligent with firearms.
Mr Pistorius denies murdering Ms Steenkamp, saying he accidentally shot her dead through a door, fearing there was a burglar in his house.
Prosecutors say the Olympic and Paralympic sprinter intentionally killed his girlfriend on 14 February last year by firing a gun through a bathroom door at her after a row at his Pretoria home.
Mr Pistorius, 27, who is a double amputee, faces life imprisonment if convicted of murdering the 29-year-old model, reality TV celebrity and law graduate.
Before Thursday's proceedings closed for the day, chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel focused his questioning on events before the shooting.
He led Mr Pistorius through the moments after he woke up at 03:00, getting out of bed to bring in two fans from the balcony and close the sliding doors.
Mr Nel took issue with Mr Pistorius's assertion that he did not hear Reeva Steenkamp get out of bed to go to the toilet.
He also showed a police photograph of the bedroom, taken three hours after the shooting, which he said contradicted Mr Pistorius's version of where the fans and a duvet had been placed.
"Your version is a lie," Mr Nel said - something the defendant denied.
In a second day of intense cross-examination, Mr Pistorius said he had not meant to pull the trigger, even to fire at an intruder.
"It was an accident... I didn't have time to think," he said, his voice trembling after he had been generally calm in contrast to previous days.
Mr Nel, known as the "bull terrier" in South Africa for his fierce questioning, also suggested Mr Pistorius was only concerned about himself during the couple's three-month relationship.
"It was all about you, Mr Pistorius," he said, repeatedly.
He tried to give the impression that the Paralympic athlete was self-centred, contemptuous of his girlfriend and lacking responsibility, the BBC's Karin Giannone reports from Pretoria.
Mr Nel suggested that Mr Pistorius should have apologised to Ms Steenkamp's family in private, rather than making a "spectacle" by doing it in court.
The athlete replied that he had not had the opportunity and had been unable to find the correct words. "I'm terribly sorry that I took the life of their daughter," he said.
In an interview with the UK's Daily Mirror newspaper, her mother, June, said the apology "left me unmoved. I knew it was coming".
In court, Mrs Steenkamp shook her head as Mr Pistorius was taken through several Whatsapp messages, which Ms Steenkamp had sent.
In one, she wrote: "You have picked on me incessantly since we got back from Cape Town."
Asked to comment, Mr Pistorius said: "I don't feel like I picked on her incessantly - maybe we were having a rough time in our relationship."
He also denied ever shouting or screaming at Ms Steenkamp, or a previous girlfriend, Sam Taylor, as she had testified earlier in the trial.
Referring to an incident when a gun was fired in a restaurant, he said he had not been aware the gun was loaded but insisted he had not pulled the trigger.
Mr Nell said a gun firing itself would be a "miracle". He also accused Mr Pistorius of lying and not taking responsibility for his actions.
Mr Pistorius did admit keeping ammunition in his bedside table, rather than in a safe, saying he was usually armed for his own safety.
If Mr Pistorius is acquitted of murder, South African law stipulates that the court must consider the separate, lesser charge of culpable homicide, or manslaughter, for which he could receive between six and 15 years in prison.
Mr Pistorius also faces charges of illegally firing a gun in public and of illegally possessing ammunition, both of which he denies.
There are no juries at trials in South Africa, and his fate will ultimately be decided by the judge, assisted by two assessors.
No comments:
Post a Comment