Oscar Pistorius faced a second day of cross-examination in his murder trial on Thursday in Pretoria, South Africa.
The prosecution accused Pistorius of caring more about himself than the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The 27-year-old was brought to tears on Wednesday during the first day of cross-examination, when he refused to look at a picture of his slain girlfriend while he sat on the witness stand.
‘I don’t have to look at a picture. I was there,” Pistorius said.
”It’s time that you look at it,” chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel said during on Wednesday, and told Pistorius to ”take responsibility” for killing Steenkamp.
Nel continued to tear into Pistorius during questioning.
“It’s all about ‘I’. It’s all about Mr Pistorius,” Nel said as he read cell phone messages in which Steenkamp said she was upset and afraid of Pistorius’s behavior.
“In an attempt to evaluate your relationship, we rely on what you say, it was the other person in this relationship that was killed by you,” Nel said.
The double-amputee Paralympian sprinter is charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp, who was shot on Valentine’s Day in 2013. The 29-year-old South African model and law school graduate was hit three times – in the head, arm, and hip – while behind a locked toilet door. Pistorius said he shot Steenkamp by mistake, and that he thought she was an intruder.
”I will not look at a picture where I’m tormented by what I saw and felt that night,” Pistorius said Wednesday.
”As I picked Reeva up, my fingers touched her head. I remember. I don’t have to look at a picture. I was there.,” he said.
When Nel asked Pistorius if he lived according to the principles of Christian faith, the athlete responded, “I’m here to tell the truth, I’m here to tell the truth as much as I can remember.”
Pistorius faces a up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder of Steenkamp.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
