'Blood-curdling screams' heard before gunshots, Pistorius trial told
The first witness in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial has told a court she heard “blood-curdling” screams before the sound of four gunshots on the night the Olympian killed his girlfriend.
Michell Burger, a woman who lives on an estate next to Pistorius’s gated community, said she and her husband were awoken by the screams in the pre-dawn hours of February 14 last year, when Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp by shooting four times through a door in his bathroom.
Pistorius says he killed Steenkamp by mistake thinking she was an intruder in his house, but prosecutors say the athlete shot his girlfriend after a fight and tried to paint a picture at the trial of a loud argument before the fatal shots.
“It was very traumatic,” Ms Burger said, speaking in Afrikaans through an interpreter in answer to questions from lead prosecutor Gerrie Nel.
“You could hear it was blood-curdling screams. You can’t translate it into words. The anxiousness in her voice, and fear. It leaves you cold.”
Ms Burger said: “She screamed terribly and she yelled for help,” and said that after the gunshots a man shouted for help.
Pistorius pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial to charges of murder and three other counts relating to shooting guns in public and illegal possession of ammunition.
Wearing a dark grey suit and black tie, he spent the first 30 minutes of the first day of the trial at the high court in the South African capital standing, before his lawyer Barry Roux asked the judge for permission for Pistorius to sit.
The Olympian’s murder trial is being broadcast live on TV in South Africa and across the world.
Ms Burger was called before even an hour had passed as the prosecution went straight into testimony. The trial started 90 minutes late after an earlier delay because of an interpreter problem.
When he entered court, Pistorius walked past the victim’s mother who says she came to court so she could “really look him in the eyes”.
Defence lawyer Kenny Oldwadge laid out Pistorius’s legal strategy, reading a statement from the runner in which he says the killing was an accident and that there are inconsistencies in the state’s case, as well as an attempt to introduce inadmissible character evidence to discredit him.
In the statement, Pistorius said he brought two fans in from the balcony on the night of the killing, after speaking to his girlfriend who was in bed beside him. He said Steenkamp must have gone into the bathroom while he was fetching the fans.
Pistorius said he did not notice she had gone and heard the bathroom window open.
“I approached the bathroom, armed with my firearm, so as to defend Reeva and I,” Pistorius said in the statement read by his lawyer.
He said he then heard a noise in the toilet, and was in a “fearful state” because he was unable to run away or defend himself physically since he was not wearing his prosthetic legs.
“The state has embarked on a strategy to rely on unsubstantiated allegations,” he said, citing a neighbour’s evidence that an argument had been heard in his home.
According to Pistorius’s statement, other neighbours living nearby said they had not heard any argument.
He also cited evidence provided by police detective Hilton Botha as “false in material respects”.
“The scene was contaminated, disturbed and tampered with,” the defence statement said. “This feature of the state’s case will be dealt with when Botha, among others, gives evidence.”
In the courtroom, Pistorius, wearing a dark grey suit and black tie, was seated near Steenkamp’s mother June. She was quoted in the Pretoria News saying she wanted to see Pistorius.
“I want to look at Oscar, really look him in the eyes, and see for myself the truth about what he did to Reeva,” said June Steenkamp, 67.
“Whatever the court decides at the end of his trial, I will be ready to forgive him. But first I want to force him to look at me, Reeva’s mother, and see the pain and anguish he has inflicted on me. I feel I need that.”
Steenkamp was a glamorous model and budding reality TV show star when she died at the age of 29.
If convicted on the murder charge, Pistorius could be sent to prison for at least 25 years before the chance of parole, the minimum time someone must serve if given a life sentence in South Africa, which does not have the death penalty.
A lesser sentence is possible if Pistorius is found guilty of murder but without premeditation. He also could be convicted of culpable homicide, South Africa’s version of manslaughter in which someone is killed through negligence.
The additional firearms charges relate to him allegedly shooting out of the sunroof of a car in one incident and another when he allegedly fired a gun inside a restaurant, apparently by mistake.
Judge Thokozile Masipa, hearing the biggest trial of her career, will ultimately pronounce the champion runner innocent or guilty and will decide on any sentence. South Africa has no trial by jury.
Parts of the trial will be broadcast on live television, in South Africa and across the world.
A South African cable channel has been launched which will provide 24-hour coverage of the Pistorius trial, using commentators and prepared feature stories when the court is not in session.
