Ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor breaks down in court while giving evidence about Oscar Pistorius, saying he was rarely without a gun and that he had screamed at her and others in anger.
In an emotional testimony that caused her to break down in tears more than once, Samantha Taylor told the court that she and Pistorius were in a relationship when he was first seen in public with Steenkamp in November 2012.
The defence argued that emails proved the couple had split up by then, but Ms Taylor insisted: “He cheated on me with Reeva Steenkamp”, adding: “We were still together, but we were having problems.”
She also said that Pistorius almost always carried a gun, and recounted an alleged incident in 2010 when he fired a gun out of the sunroof of the car she was travelling in because he was angry about being stopped by the police for speeding.
On the fifth day of the murder trial of South Africa’s most famous athlete, Ms Taylor said Pistorius had screamed at her several times, along with “my sister, my best friend, his best friend”.
I remember him shooting out the gun very very clearly – Samantha Taylor
The Olympic and Paralympic athlete is accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day last year. Pistorius, 27, denies murder and says it was a terrible accident: he shot her through the closed bathroom door at his home because he thought she was an intruder.
The court also heard from a security guard on Friday, who said that Pistorius told him “everything is fine”, minutes after Steenkamp died.
Pieter Baba, who was on duty in the early hours of 14 February, said he received a call from the athlete around five minutes after Steenkamp was shot. Pistorius was too upset to talk, but when Mr Baba called him back, concerned that something was wrong, he said that everything was fine.
If found guilty, Pistorius faces at least 25 years in prison. He also faces lesser charges of discharging a weapon in a public place: through the sunroof of a car and in a restaurant.
Ms Taylor said that her then-boyfriend had fired a gun through the sunroof of a car after he and his friend Darren Fresco were stopped by police for speeding. The runner was angry when a police officer picked up his gun, she said, and both men had joked about shooting a “robot”: the word for a traffic light in South Africa. She said Pistorius then fired the gun and they both laughed. When questioned, she said: “I remember him shooting out the gun very very clearly”.
Photo: Pistorius greets members of the ANC Women’s League during the fifth day of his trial
Read more: who’s who in the Pistorius trial
Ms Taylor dismissed the case put forward by the defence that Pistorius could sound like a woman when he screamed: defence Lawyer Barry Roux has argued that witnesses were hearing Pistorius, and not Reeva, screaming after the gunshots.
She also told the court that there were several occasions when Pistorius had suspected an intruder was in the house, and had woken her up before doing anything.
The defence has tried to paint a picture of Pistorius as vulnerable and scared about being attacked. Ms Taylor was asked about an incident when they were being followed by a car, and how Pistorius reacted.
“Was he scared? Not necessarily,” she told the court. “The fact that he carried a gun with him for safety reasons means he was aware of what he could face. But I don’t think he was scared.”
Ms Taylor also said that he always took his mobile phone with him to bed – something the prosecution is likely to dwell on, raising the question as to why, if this was the case, he didn’t call the police when he was concerned about an intruder.
The day began with Dr Johan Stipp in the stand (see video above): the neighbour who arrived on the scene to see Pistorius weeping and praying over a mortally wounded Steenkamp.
He was cross-examined by defence lawyer Barry Roux and told the court that he was woken by three gunshots, followed by a woman screaming, and then heard at least two more gunshots.
The importance of establishing a timeline has emerged as a crucial part of the puzzle in this case: Mr Roux has argued that Steenkamp was killed by the initial gunshots, that the screams witnesses heard belonged to Pistorius, and that the following “gunshots” were in fact Pistorius beating down the bathroom door.
When asked by prosecution lawyer, Gerrie Nel, whether it would be possible to hit a cricket bat against the door as quickly as he heard the gunshots, Dr Stipp replied: “Well, I wouldn’t be able to do that because it was in very quick succession.”