Get all the news from the Oscar Pistorius murder trial on Day 5 in one place.
[full]OSCAR’S EX BREAKS DOWN – Sapa
Court proceedings were adjourned for a second time on Friday as an ex-girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius again lost her composure.
Samantha Taylor broke down and cried when Pistorius’s lawyer asked her how she had felt about their break-up.
“I was upset,” she said, before breaking into tears.
The 20-year-old woman earlier told the court that she and Pistorius had separated because he had cheated on her with model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius is standing trial at the High Court in Pretoria for the murder of Steenkamp.
He shot her dead through a locked bathroom door at his house on Valentines Day last year.
He says he mistook her for an intruder.
During the proceedings, prosecutor Gerrie Nel walked to Taylor and spoke briefly to her.
OSCAR WAS ANGRY WITH COP: WITNESS – Sapa
Oscar Pistorius was angry after a policeman reprimanded him for leaving his gun on the seat when he was stopped for speeding, High Court in Pretoria heard on Friday.
His ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor told the court that Pistorius later fired a shot out of the car, “perhaps out of spite,” she said.
“After we left, he was angry. Before he fired the shot he was irritated and afterwards he laughed,” said Taylor.
Pistorius, Taylor and his friend Darren Fresco had been driving from the Vaal when the incident occurred.
Taylor testified that Pistorius initially said he wanted to shoot at a traffic light, and then suddenly fired a shot through the open sunroof of the car.
As the 20-year-old spoke of the incident, she lifted her right hand in the air and demonstrated a shooting motion.
Taylor told the court she and Pistorius had broken up because he had cheated on her with Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius is on trial after shooting Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door at his Pretoria home last year.
He says he mistook her for an intruder.
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Taylor admits she had a relationship with Quinton vd Bergh who took her to Dubai
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Roux – did you not send an email admitting to cheating on OP and apologising for it
COMMOTION IN RELATIONSHIP: OSCAR EX – Sapa
There was “a lot of commotion” in her relationship with paralympian Oscar Pistorius, his ex-girlfriend told the High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
“About a week before the sports awards, we were at Sun City and we had a couple of problems. There was a lot of commotion in our relationship,” Samantha Taylor said to questions by Barry Roux, SC, for Pistorius.
Taylor told the court she met Pistorius at a rugby game in 2010 and started dating him the next year, when she was 17.
She broke up with him for the first time when Pistorius was on a trip to London and went out with a woman called Anastasia.
The second and last time their relationship ended, was on November 4, 2012 when Pistorius took Reeva Steenkamp to a sports awards ceremony.
Taylor said she spent four nights a week at his home during their relationship.
Pistorius sat upright in the dock, listening to her.
Asked by prosecutor Gerrie Nel why the relationship ended, she replied: “He cheated on me with Reeva Steenkamp.”
She started crying and court was adjourned for a few minutes to allow her to compose herself.
Pistorius is accused of the murder of model and law graduate Steenkamp. He has denied guilt, saying he mistook her for an intruder.
He is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and two counts of discharging a firearm in public.
He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.
In September 2010 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
OSCAR’S EX BREAKS DOWN – Sapa
The ex-girlfriend of murder-accused paralympian Oscar Pistorius started crying after telling the High Court in Pretoria that he cheated on her twice.
This prompted the judge to call a composure break.
Gently spoken Samantha Taylor had just described how Pistorius had fired a shot through a sunroof of a car while they were dating — which relates to the charge of discharging a firearm in a public place.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked why their relationship, between 2011 and 2012, had ended and she said: “He cheated on me with Reeva Steenkamp.”
Steenkamp was shot dead by Pistorius in a toilet cubicle in his bathroom in Pretoria on February 14, 2013.
He said it was mistaken identity, thinking it was a burglar. The State alleges it was murder.
When Roux began his cross-examination, he asked why they broke up.
She responded by enquiring whether he was referring to their first or second time.
Taylor said: “The first time our relationship ended was when he cheated on me with…” and she sniffed and apologised to the judge.
“I’m sorry, My Lady,” she said, and Judge Thokozile Masipa called an adjournment.
Taylor wiped her eyes and was comforted by another woman, until court resumed a few minutes later.
OSCAR FIRED SHOT OUT OF CAR: WITNESS – Sapa
An ex-girlfriend of murder-accused Oscar Pistorius on Friday testified that Pistorius had shot through the open sunroof of a car as they drove from the Vaal.
Samantha Taylor told the High Court in Pretoria that she, Pistorius and his friend, Darren Fresco, were stopped by police for speeding.
Pistorius and Fresco stepped out of the car and Pistorius left his gun on the seat.
After checking the car, the policeman told Pistorius that he should not have left his gun on the seat, said Taylor.
“Oscar shouted at the policeman and said he shouldn’t touch his gun,” said Taylor.
The three of them then drove off.
“Oscar and Darren were irritated and they said they wanted to shoot a robot,” said Taylor.
“About two minutes later, Oscar took out his gun and shot through the roof,” Taylor, adding that it was through an open sunroof.
As the 20-year-old spoke of the incident, she lifted her right hand in the air and showed a shooting motion.
She told the court that Pistorius and Fresco then laughed about the incident.
Taylor was testifying in the murder trial of Pistorius.
Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, through a locked bathroom door at his Pretoria home.
He alleged he had mistaken her for an intruder.
Taylor, just like Steenkamp, is a blonde with the looks of a model.
SCAR DOES NOT SCREAM LIKE A WOMAN: EX – Sapa
Oscar Pistorius does not scream like a woman, his ex-girlfriend told the High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
“It is the accused’s case that if he screams, and if he’s really anxious, he screams like a woman,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel said to witness Samantha Taylor.
“That is not true,” the willowy blonde replied.
When asked by Nel when she had heard Pistorius scream before, she said she had previously heard him scream “at myself”.
Pistorius’s lawyer has previously argued that on the night he shot dead Reeva Steenkamp, the woman whom witnesses say they heard screaming was in fact Pistorius screaming like a woman.
Taylor told the court she met Pistorius at a rugby game in 2010 and started dating him the next year, when she was 17.
Asked by Nel why the relationship ended, she replied: “He cheated on me with Reeva Steenkamp.”
Pistorius is accused of the murder of model and law graduate Steenkamp. He is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and two counts of discharging a firearm in public.
He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.
In September 2010 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
OSCAR’S EX BREAKS DOWN – Sapa
The ex-girlfriend of murder-accused paralympian Oscar Pistorius started crying after telling the High Court in Pretoria that he cheated on her twice.
This prompted the judge to call a composure break.
Gently spoken Samantha Taylor had just described how Pistorius had fired a shot through a sunroof of a car while they were dating — which relates to the charge of discharging a firearm in a public place.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked why their relationship, between 2011 and 2012, had ended and she said: “He cheated on me with Reeva Steenkamp.”
Steenkamp was shot dead by Pistorius in a toilet cubicle in his bathroom in Pretoria on February 14, 2013.
He said it was mistaken identity, thinking it was a burglar. The State alleges it was murder.
When Roux began his cross-examination, he asked why they broke up.
She responded by enquiring whether he was referring to their first or second time.
Taylor said: “The first time our relationship ended was when he cheated on me with…” and she sniffed and apologised to the judge.
“I’m sorry, My Lady,” she said, and Judge Thokozile Masipa called an adjournment.
Taylor wiped her eyes and was comforted by another woman, until court resumed a few minutes later.
EX-GIRLFRIEND TESTIFIES IN OSCAR TRIAL – Sapa
A former girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius, Samantha Taylor, was sworn in to give evidence at his murder trial in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
The gently spoken woman, with blonde hair flowing down her shoulders, told the court she started dating Pistorius’s in 2011 when she 17.
They met at a rugby game in 2010 and he added her on Facebook and they started talking over social media.
She said she spent about four days a week at his house and was familiar with the main bedroom of the house.
He would sleep on the right hand side of the bed, she said.
She knew he owned a gun because “he carried it around with him”.
She said at night he placed the firearm on his bedside table or next to his legs on the floor.
Pistorius wears prosthetic legs after a double amputation as a child and went on to become a gold medal-winning athlete who also competed in the Olympic games.
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Roux saying that Taylor’s assertion that when Oscar took Reeva out they were still dating not true, he will produce emails
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Taylor mentions other occasions on which Pistorius screamed at other people, never sounded like a woman
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Taylor – Oscar screamed at me on more than one occasion
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Taylor – Oscar got very angry said policeman not allowed to touch his gun. Darren Fresco also present
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Taylor on the way home from Vaal we got stopped by police because we were speeding, Pistorius had left gun on seat of car
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Taylor now relating shooting of gun through sunroof incident
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Taylor – I’ve seen him be very anxious and scream at me and he did not sound like a woman
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Nel asking Taylor if Oscar screams like a woman – Taylor, not true he screams like a man
Tweet: @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius next witness – Oscar’s ex, Samantha Taylor
WITNESS SAW LIGHT. OSCAR CLAIMS IT WAS DARK – Sapa
A witness’s testimony that he saw a light on in Oscar Pistorius’s bathroom window contradicts the paralympic athlete’s claims that it was dark, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Friday.
Johan Stipp said he saw light through the frosted glass of Pistorius’s bathroom from the bedroom balcony of his townhouse shortly after 3am on February 14 last year, when he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel then read from the statement Pistorius submitted at his bail application.
“Everything was pitch dark… I was still too scared to switch on the light,” Nel read out to the court.
Stipp testified on Thursday that he woke up around 3am to what sounded like gunshots, then heard a woman screaming and then three more “bangs”.
Stipp said he could see one whole pane and the top half of the other two of the bathroom window. On Thursday Stipp testified that he saw the light was on and the “light silhouette of a person” moving behind the glass from right to left.
A vacant plot of land separates Stipp’s townhouse from the one Pistorius owned, in the Silver Woods Country Estate.
Court adjourned for tea at 10.45am.
Pistorius is accused of the murder of model and law graduate Steenkamp.
He is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and two counts of discharging a firearm in public. He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.
In September 2010 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
SHOUT TESTS DONE AT PISTORIUS HOUSE – Sapa
Oscar Pistorius’s defence recreated screams and shouts in tests at his Pretoria home last month as part of submissions to challenge testimony against the murder-accused paralympian.
“On the 21st of February there were indeed tests done and part of the tests was a woman screaming, loud, as loud as she could,” said Barry Roux SC in the High Court in Pretoria.
He has submitted that the screams witnesses have said they heard, were actually Pistorius’s because his voice sounds like a woman’s when he is anxious.
He said it was not possible for Pistorius’s girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to scream when was shot dead by him on Valentine’s Day morning last year because she had suffered severe brain damage, leaving her with no cognitive function.
A previous witness, Estelle van der Merwe, a neighbour in the upmarket estate, also said she heard shouting on February 21 this year.
The defence has placed heavy emphasis on the sequence and gender of the screams heard from Pistorius’s house on the morning Steenkamp was shot dead.
The State’s case is that Pistorius and Steenkamp had an argument before she was shot, and that her murder was premeditated.
His defence is that he thought there was a burglar in the toilet cubicle of the bathroom when he fired four shots through the meranti door, killing her. Then he broke the door down with a cricket bat and took her downstairs.
The latest witness, radiologist Johan Stipp, who said he later saw Pistorius next to her praying for her to live, said he heard the noises.
Stipp told the court, under cross-examination by Roux, that on the night Steenkamp was shot, he had heard a woman’s scream, intermingled with a man’s screams.
The test of February 21 is the second so far revealed to the court in the defence’s bid to prove Pistorius’s innocence on a charge of murder.
On Thursday, Roux revealed that a decibel test had been conducted of his voice to prove that his voice pitch changes.
The trial has seen the showcasing of several features not usually found in South African court cases. Screens are placed around the court for the display of photographs taken as exhibits to show the distance between the houses of Pistorius and witnesses, images such as close up of a shot fired into the floor of Tasha’s restaurant in Melrose Arch, allegedly by Pistorius, a long shot of Pistorius’s bathroom window taken over the duvet cover and night light of Stipp and his wife Annette’s bedroom.
Sound and visuals feed to accommodate the extra journalists and public interested in watching the trial first hand are screened in an “overflow room”.
It is being broadcast live as a result of a precedent-setting court order by Judge Dunstan Mlambo, in addition to tweets of the testimony from inside the court.
Pistorius also faces charges under the Firearms Act relating to the alleged discharge of a firearm in public in separate incidents.
Tweet: @GraemeHosken #OscarPistorius #OscarTrial prosecutor gets witness to cast doubt on defence version of events
PISTORIUS CAN’T RECALL INTRUDER MENTION – Sapa
Oscar Pistorius does not recall telling a man who came to assist him after he shot and killed his girlfriend that he had mistaken her for an intruder, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Friday.
“Mr Pistorius says he can’t remember telling you he thought she was an intruder,” Pistorius’s lawyer, Barry Roux, told Johan Stipp, who was testifying in Pistorius’s murder trial.
“He recalls asking you to help him,” said Roux.
Stipp maintained that Pistorius had told him this.
The radiologist lives close to Pistorius’s home at the Silver Woods Country Estate in Pretoria.
He was one of the first people to arrive on the scene after Pistorius fatally shot Reeva Steenkamp at his Pretoria home.
On Thursday, he gave a chilling account of how he walked into Pistorius’s home to find him kneeling beside Steenkamp at the bottom of his stairs, trying in vain to resuscitate her.
Stipp said Pistorius said: “I shot her. I thought she was a burglar. I shot her.”
He told the court that Pistorius had his fingers in Steenkamp’s mouth, trying to clear her airway.
He said Pistorius pleaded with God to save Steenkamp, claiming he would dedicate both his and Steenkamp’s lives to God.
As Pistorius stands trial, he maintains that he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder.
The State, however, was trying to prove that Pistorius committed premeditated murder when he shot Steenkamp through the locked bathroom door at his home.
STEENKAMP’S FAMILY NOT IN COURT – Sapa
Members of Reeva Steenkamp’s family were not seen in court on Friday as her alleged murderer Oscar Pistorius appeared for the fifth day of his trial in the High Court in Pretoria.
While Steenkamp’s mother had attended the proceedings on Monday, she has not been seen in court since then.
Steenkamp’s father was reported to have suffered a mild stroke several and was not expected to attend the proceedings this week.
Steenkamp’s cousin, Kim Martin, who has constantly attended the proceedings, did not return after court adjourned for lunch on Thursday.
After holding a brief conversation with Pistorius’s sister Aimee, she cried as details of her cousin’s injuries were revealed.
Pistorius shot Steenkamp in the arm, thigh and in the head.
The part of the court gallery that previously been occupied by the Steenkamp family was occupied on Friday by three members of the ANC Womens League, as well as two women friends of the Steenkamps.
During an adjournment, Pistorius on Friday shook hands with the ANCWL members.
Pistorius’s family has maintained a strong presence in court, with Aimee attending all the proceedings since Monday.
During the week, the family was seen embracing Pistorius and at times praying with him.
Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, through a locked toilet door at his home in Pretoria on Valentine’s Day last year.
He claimed to have mistaken her for an intruder.
The State, however, argues that it was premeditated murder.
He is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and two counts of discharging a firearm in public.
He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.
In September 2010 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
WITNESS DID NOT HEAR SCREAMS – Sapa
A witness whose bedroom balcony looks onto Oscar Pistorius’s bathroom window told the High Court in Pretoria on Friday that he did not hear “blood-curdling” screams.
Barry Roux, for murder accused Pistorius, put it to radiologist Johan Stipp that another couple, Michelle Burger and her husband Charl Johnson, had testified to having heard “blood-curdling, fearful screaming that carried on during the shots and faded away after”.
The couple’s home is about 170m from Pistorius’s. Stipp’s is much closer, being separated from it by an open plot of land, according to photos displayed on screens around the court.
Stipp testified on Thursday that he woke up around 3am on February 14 last year to what sounded like gunshots, then heard a woman screaming and then three more “bangs”.
He told Roux on Friday that after he went back inside his house from the balcony to call security, he did not hear further screaming.
Asked to explain why, Stipp said: “I probably had compromised hearing at that stage… I was on the phone, not talking, but there were sounds, like dialling tones.”
Roux then moved on to ask Stipp exactly how much of the three panes of frosted bathroom window he could see.
He said one whole pane and the top half of the other two.
On Thursday, Stipp testified that he saw the light in the bathroom was on and the “light silhouette of a person” moving behind the glass from right to left as he stood on his balcony after the screams woke him.
Pistorius is accused of the murder of model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp.
He is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and two counts of discharging a firearm in public. He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.
In September 2010 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
ROUX POINTS OUT CONTRADICTIONS – Sapa
Oscar Pistorius’s lawyer on Friday said there were contradictions in evidence submitted by a radiologist testifying in Pistorius’s murder trial at the High Court in Pretoria.
Barry Roux, SC, was questioning Johan Stipp on testimony he delivered on Thursday.
According to Roux, Stipp on Thursday said: “I saw the lights on, looked out and then heard the screaming.”
Roux said Stipp, however, later said he first heard the woman screaming and looked around, wanting to establish where the screams were coming from.
In response, Stipp said: “My actions were all simultaneous.”
“Remember, I’m a radiologist. I see in pictures. I’m talking, I’m looking I’m seeing. I am trained to do that,” said Stipp.
He lived close to Pistorius’s home at the Silver Woods Country Estate in Pretoria.
Stipp was one of the first people to arrive at Pistorius’s home after Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentines Day last year.
He claims he had mistaken her for an intruder.
Roux went on to question Stipp about a series of calls he made to several people while requesting help while still at his home.
He questioned Stipp on whether he was sure about his testimony that he had twice tried to call the security at the complex.
Stipp agreed, adding that he could not get through the first time around.
Roux said the State had provided phone records of the security company and those showed that Stipp’s first call did not go through, but the second call went unanswered.
Stipp maintained he was able to get through to security on his second try.
The State was trying to prove that Pistorius committed premeditated murder when he shot Steenkamp through the locked bathroom door at his home.
In addition, Pistorius is charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Roux back to point about toilet been closed and therefore no one could have heard screams from inside toilet
OSCAR JUDGE WARNS MEDIA — AGAIN – Sapa
Judge Thokozile Masipa again warned journalists to behave in the High Court in Pretoria during Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial.
On Friday however, she went a step further and said any transgressors would be removed from court.
“You should know better. From now on you will be forcefully removed from this court and you will not be given an opportunity to come back, either to this court or to the overflow room.”
As she spoke the clickety-clack of laptop keyboards rose from the gallery as journalists wrote down her words.
Muttering from the public gallery, a laptop suddenly chattering while a witness was testifying, a media house’s use of a witness’s photo, and the use of a flashlight in court have all tested Masipa’s patience this week.
Testimony of the State witness, radiologist Johan Stipp, continued after Masipa’s warning.
Stipp’s home, in the Silver Woods Country Estate, Pretoria, is near Pistorius’s. He testified that he woke up around 3am on February 14 last year to what sounded like gunshots, then heard a woman screaming and then three more “bangs”.
Pistorius is accused of the murder of Reeva Steenkamp.
He is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and two counts of discharging a firearm in public.
He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.
In September 2010 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
DAY FIVE OF PISTORIUS TRIAL BEGINS – Sapa
The fifth day of the trial of murder-accused paralympian Oscar Pistorius got underway around 9.30am in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
Judge Thokozile Masipa issued a warning before the cross-examination of the sixth witness, radiologist Johan Stipp, resumed.
Masipa warned that if anyone misbehaved in court they would be “chucked out”.
Pistorius’s attorney Barry Roux started by asking Stipp not to tailor his evidence to fit the State’s case.
Pistorius, 27, is accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14 last year. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder, and to contraventions under the Firearms Control Act.
Stipp was the first doctor to arrive at the crime scene and testified on Thursday that the athlete was so emotional he feared he would turn the gun on himself.
“I was afraid Oscar would hurt himself,” Stipp told the court.
Stipp, a neighbour of Pistorius’s in the Silver Woods security estate, said he was woken by gunshots and screams. After alerting security, he went to see if anybody needed medical help.
He found Pistorius kneeling next to his dying girlfriend, with one hand on a bullet wound in her thigh and the other in her mouth, trying in vain to help her to breathe.
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Roux arguing that Stipp’s description of time between shots and going outside as “moments” is an exaggeration
Tweet: TMG Oscar @OscarsTrial #OscarPistorius Resuming with Roux’s cross examination of Stipp
PISTORIUS CASE ENTERS DAY 5 – Sapa
The murder trial of paralympian Oscar Pistorius will continue in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
He is accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14 last year. Pistorius claims he mistook her for a burglar.
The first doctor to arrive at the scene where Pistorius shot Steenkamp testified on Thursday that the athlete was so emotional he feared he would turn the gun on himself.
“I was afraid Oscar would hurt himself,” radiologist Johan Stipp told the court.
Stipp, a neighbour of Pistorius’s in the Silver Woods security estate, said he was woken by gunshots and screams. After alerting security, he went to see if anybody needed medical help.
He found Pistorius kneeling next to his dying girlfriend, with one hand on a bullet wound in her thigh and the other in her mouth, trying in vain to force her to breathe.
Pistorius words to him were: “I shot her. I thought she was a burglar and I shot her.”
Describing the athlete’s distress, he told the court: “He was praying. He was talking to God … He was trying, maybe I don’t know, to get atonement.
“He definitely wanted her to live… He looked sincere to me. He had tears on his face,” he said under cross-examination from Pistorius’s lawyer Barry Roux.[/full]