Pistorius Testimony
I woke up My Lady in early hours 14th February it was extremely warm in my room.
Hmm I sat up in bed. Reeva was still awake or she was obviously not sleeping, she rolled over to me and she said can’t you sleep my bubba? And I said no I can’t tonight. Got, got out of my side of the bed I walked around the bed, the foot of the bed I was holding on to the foot of the bed with my left hand got to where the fans were. I took the small fan, I placed it pretty much just inside room. I then proceeded to close the siding doors and lock them I then the drew curtains. It was at this point I heard a window open in the bathroom, it sounded like the window sliding open. And then I could hear the window hit the frame as though it had slipped to the point where it can’t slide any more.
Roux:
What did you think at time Mr Pistorius?
Pistorius:
My Lady, That’s the moment that everything changed.
I thought that there was a burglar that was scaling entry into my home I was erm on the side of the room where you first have to cross the passage which leads to the, which leads to the bathroom. I think initially I just froze, I didn’t really know what to do. I heard this noise I interpreted it as being somebody was climbing into the bathroom. There’s no door between the bathroom and my room, it’s all one. There's a passageway but there is no door, there’s a toilet door but there’s no barrier between me and the bathroom, it’s one room. I immediately thought that erm somebody if they were at the window to where the passage... entrance of the passage was... could be four, three four metres... they could be there any moment. And the first, the first thing that ran through my mind was that I needed to arm myself that I needed to protect Reeva and I, that I needed to get my gun.
I then erm, I was looking down the passage I was scared that the person the people were going to come out at that point I rushed as quick as I could I couldn’t see anything in the..so I ran with my hand out in front of me, at times touching the floor, and then when I got to my bed I made my way along the side of my bed and I grabbed my firearm from underneath the bed and it had a canvas holster on it so I immediately took it out the holster erm. At that point I wanted to just put myself between...get back to the passageway so that I could put myself between the person that had gained access to my house and Reeva. When I got to just before the passage wall I remember slowing down because I was scared at that point,this person, during the time that I’d got from, eh that’d I’d left…got my firearm... could possibly have already been in the passage the closet passage. So I slowed down and I had my firearm extended in front of me.
Roux..
If I may…
Pistorius:
Just as I left my bed hmm I whispered for Reeva to get down, and phone the police erm I , I... as I entered where the passage is where the closet is to the erm where I entered the passage where the closet is to the erm bathroom erm it was at that point I was just overcome with fear and I started screaming and shouting for the burglar or for the intruders to get out of my house.
I shouted for Reeva to get on the floor shouted for her to phone the police. Screamed ,at the people persons to get out house erm slowly made my way down the passage, constantly aware that this threat that these people or persons could come at me at any time. I didn’t have my legs on, and erm, just before I got to the wall of the… where the tiles start in the bathroom I stopped shouting because I was worried if I kept shouting the person would know exactly where I was. If I put my head around the corner I could get shot. Just before I got to the passage of the bathroom I heard a door slam which could have only been the toilet door I couldn’t see into the bathroom at this point but I could hear the door slam and for me confirmed that there was person or people inside the toilet or inside the bathroom at that time.
As I slowly peered into the bathroom I could see that the window was open saw that there wasn’t anybody around the corner wanting to attack me I retreated a little bit maybe a step or two back still with my hand against the wall slid my back and my shoulder to help me balance at this point I started screaming again for Reeva to phone the police erm I wasn’t sure where to point the firearm, I had it pointed at the toilet but my eyes were going between the window and the toilet I stood there for some time, not sure how long.
I wasn't sure if someone was going to come out of the toilet to attack me. I wasn’t sure if someone was going to come up the ladder and point a firearm in the house, and start shooting erm so I just stayed where I was, and kept on screaming, and then I heard a noise from inside the toilet erm what I perceived to be somebody coming out of the toilet, before I knew it I'd fired 4 shots at the door, my ears were ringing I couldn't hear anything, so I shouted I kept on shouting for Reeva to phone the police I was still scared to retreat because I wasn't sure if there was somebody on the ladder, wasn't sure if there was somebody in the toilet.
Erm I don’t know how long I sta…I stood there for I shouted for Reeva, but erm at some point I decided to walk back to the room because I couldn’t hear anything my ears were ringing I couldn’t hear if there was a response or not I didn’t have the phone on me I walked with my hand out on the left hand cupboards with my pistol still raised. I kept on shouting for Reeva erm I didn’t hear anything. At this point it hadn’t occurred to me yet that it could be Reeva in the bathroom, I still thought that there would be intruders that were possibly in the toilet or in…on the ladder outside the house.
I retreated back to the point where I got to the corner of the bed with my hand out on the bed and I tried to lift myself up. I was talking to Reeva. No one responded to me. At that point I lifted myself up onto the bed and I placed my hand back to the right hand side of the bed and I looked, erm I felt if Reeva was there. I couldn’t feel anything. The first thing I thought was maybe that she’d got down onto the floor, like I’d told her to. Maybe she was just scared. I can’t remember what I said but I was trying to talk out to her, I kept my firearm the whole time I moved along the bed. I think it was at that point my lady eh that it first dawned upon me that it could be Reeva that was in the bathroom in the toilet. I jumped out of the other side of the bed and I ran my hand along the curtains to see that she wasn’t hiding behind the curtain. Felt around and made my way back up the passage, I still had my firearm in front of me. At this point I was mixed with emotions I didn’t know if.. I didn’t want to believe that it could be Reeva inside the toilet I was still scared that somebody was coming in to attack me or us. I made my way to... back to inside the bathroom and I walked up to the bathroom door. I tried to grab the handle and rip open the door and push the door open and it was locked. For the first time I turned around with my back facing the bathroom I ran back to the room and I opened the curtains I shouted from the balcony, I opened the doors and shouted from the balcony for help. Screamed, help help help. Screamed for somebody to help me and then erm I put my prosthetic legs on, I ran as fast as I could back to the bathroom I ran into the door, it didn’t move at all. I leant back and tried to kick the door and nothing happened. I was, I was just panicked at this point, I didn’t really know what to make…what to do erm I ran back to the bedroom where the cricket bat was between the cabinets and the door.
Roux:
Where you screaming at that stage?
Pistorius:
I was screaming and shouting the whole time and crying out, I was, I don’t think I’ve ever screamed like that or cried like that,or screamed, or I was crying out for the lord to help me, I was crying out for Reeva. I was screaming, I didn’t know what to do. I ran back to, I ran straight back to the bathroom door, I placed my fir…I don’t remember but I must have placed my firearm on the carpet in the bathroom. I ran straight up to the door and I started hitting it…I think I hit it three times. And the first time I hit it I, I remember hitting erm, I hit the frame of the door, and the shock in my hands so I swung again and it hit a small piece open and at that point, all I wanted to do was just look inside to see if it was Reeva. And then I hit the door erm I think I hit the door three times and there was a big plank I grabbed it with my hands and I threw it out into the bathroom I leant over the middle partition I tried to open the door from the inside but there was no key in the door, I leant over the middle partition of the door and I saw the key was on the floor. At that point all I wanted to do was just climb into the toilet over the middle part of the door. I erm once I leant over the partition to get in I saw the key so I took it and I unlocked the door and I flung the door open, I threw it open and I sat over Reeva and I cried, I don’t know how long…I don’t know how long I was there for. She wasn’t breathing.
END
The Court was also told by Pistorius that his alarm system wasn't working hadn't been working properly since 2010.
He seems also to have had a faulty/flimsy door lock on his bedroom door.
A bathroom window left unlocked
A ladder lying outside the house.
Bedroom patio doors lying open while he slept.
A bathroom without a door to separate the bathroom from the bedroom.
All of this is surprising for a man who we are to believe was paranoid about security. To have a bathroom window of a size a person can get through, and with no bathroom door separating the bathroom from bedroom which could be locked and prevent to a point an intruder getting in to the bedroom easily, is extraordinary for someone who worried so about his safety. How did he sleep at night knowing someone could come in that bathroom window straight into his bedroom, and a flimsy lock on the door which led into his bedroom from the landing?
I guess the same way he slept when he left the glass sliding doors out to the balcony lying open!
Pistorius testimony is so weak. I'm sure Barry Roux must be tonight thinking if he was the Prosecution of how he would tear it apart.
I find it odd that one minute on his stumps, he had no balance having hold on to the bed, feeling his way along the walls, next minute he is running on his stumps galloping along billyo.?
All this running he was doing in that bedroom, one would think his room was the size of the athletics track..! And running with one hand out in front of him the other with the gun holding that out in front of him too, and he has little balance we are told - surprised he wasn't wobbling all the way down that passageway when he was running around...
Also, one minute he cannot see anything, then he can.
And the bathroom - Was the light off when he first went there? I take it it was. If so, Reeva Steenkamp went to use bathroom without a light on? Not impossible but if the bathroom was a dark place without it, would seem odd that she didn't switch it on, unless of course there was light coming from the passageway, OR she was running in fear, didn't have time to flick it on but headed straight to the toilet cubicle to lock herself in, keep herself safe from Pistorius! Did he have the gun when she first fled, or did he decide on the gun when the poor young woman wouldn't come out of the cubicle?
And Reeva Steenkamp was also as deaf as a doorknob if we are to believe the Pistorius version of events, all that shouting and screaming he was doing before he fired and she didn't hear a thing.
He said he had just spoken to her, and she, him, then he got out of bed to sort a fan, lock the sliding doors and just at this he heard the bathroom window supposedly. Now if he spoke to Steenkamp at this point, why did he not think it was odd that she didn't answer, she was lying there seconds before speaking to him asking 'bubba' if he couldn't sleep?
When did she manage to slip out of the bed unheard? She would have spoken to him. If they were both awake both talking to each other and he got up to close the doors he would most definitely have been asking her why she hadn't closed those sliding windows at the balcony.
And how interesting his ex girlfriend said he always slept at the side of the bed closest to the balcony and the police said that is where his phone charger was plugged in. He said he had changed sides as he had a painful shoulder and had slept on this 'changed' side for a couple of weeks due to this. Old Roux trying to cover all bases for him. Well that is what he is paid to do.
And was not Miss Steenkamp's slippers/sandals at that side of the bed, the side Pistorius claims he slept that night?
Odd too before he was sure it was Reeva Steenkamp in the cubicle (if he had earlier thought she might be hiding behind the curtain she could just as easily have left the room in a bid for safey from this intruder, why did Pistorius not consider this) that he ran to the sliding doors, opened the curtains, the doors and shouted from balcony for help THEN went for a cricket bat!
Why not get the cricket bat first to help Reeva if he was now thinking it was her in the toilet, thinking he had shot her, every second would count. His phone too would get more instant results than shouting from a balcony in the hope someone would hear and come to his aid?
Who did he think would hear him?
As is not part of his defence that those witnesses who said they heard screaming and shouting must be mistaken? He cannot have it both ways!
And why when he first woke and closed those sliding doors, when he thought he heard the bathroom window being opened did he not shout from the balcony for help at that time?
Also he said he heard the window opening,how quick was that, the supposed intruder at clambering inside and then locking himself in the toilet cubicle?
His whole story makes no sense and Gerrie Nel is going to have a field day when the trial gets round to his cross examining of Pistorius.
***Do S. Africans pronounce 'G' as 'H' or have I misheard? I was so sure that Curlews was saying 'Harry' when speaking of Gerrie Nel. Another legal expert pronounced Gerrie in the same way as Curlewis did. Just wondering!
l-azzeri-lies-in-sun.com
8th April 2014