Pistorius ‘an appalling witness who dropped baton of truth’, prosecutor says

The prosecution in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial has summed up its case by insisting the athlete committed premeditated murder involving a “deliberate weighing up of actions”. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said the athlete acted with legal intention or direct intention when he fired four shots through a toilet door at home, fatally wounding his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. In summing up his case against Pistorius, Nel explained how the pair exchanged messages proving their romance had “ups and downs” and added: “10 per cent of the messages suggested she was unhappy. And seven days later she was dead”.

We argue there was no reasonable reason as to why he fired four shots. If you fire four shots into a small cubicle with ‘black talon’ ammunition, you cannot escape that.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel

Nel has also accused the athlete’s lawyers of presenting a dishonest defence against the murder charge. He made the allegation in his closing argument against the athlete who shot dead Steenkamp through a toilet door at his home in February 2013. Nel said a criminal trial was a “blunt instrument for digging up the truth”, adding Pistorius’ lawyers argued the athlete acted in self-defence as he feared an intruder was in his house, but also suggested he shot Steenkamp because he was ‘startled’.

This wasn’t a normal relationship. This relationship ended in death.

Gerrie Nel

Africa Pistorius