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Prosecutor Describes Pistorius as Self-Centered and Bullying Prosecutor Describes Pistorius as a Self-Centered Bully
(about 4 hours later)
After a day of intense courtroom confrontation and emotion, the athlete Oscar Pistorius returned to the stand for a fourth straight day on Thursday to face new questions from a dogged prosecutor intent on depicting him as narcissistic, self-centered and bullying, so intent on self-gratification that he ignored the feelings of the dead woman’s family. The double-amputee athlete Oscar Pistorius returned to the stand for a fourth straight day on Thursday to face new questions from a prosecutor intent on depicting him as a narcissistic, self-centered bully who routinely berated the girlfriend he killed and who recklessly carried a loaded gun everywhere he went.
“It’s all about I, it’s all about Mr. Pistorius,” the state prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, told the athlete, challenging him to explain why he had used the first day of his testimony on Monday to offer an apology to Ms. Steenkamp’s family. “You never thought about them. You never thought how they would feel,” Mr. Nel said. “It’s all about ‘I’, it’s all about Mr. Pistorius,” the state prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, told the court, challenging Mr. Pistorius to explain why he had waited months, until the first day of his testimony this week, to offer an apology to Ms. Steenkamp’s family. “You never thought about them. You never thought how they would feel,” Mr. Nel said.
“You are not sorry that you killed their daughter,” Mr. Nel said. “You are not sorry that you killed their daughter,” he continued.
“I’m terribly sorry that I took the life of their daughter,” Mr. Pistorius replied. In the public gallery, June Steenkamp, the victim’s mother, looked on impassively. “I’m terribly sorry that I took the life of their daughter,” Mr. Pistorius replied. In the courthouse gallery, June Steenkamp, the victim’s mother, looked on impassively.
Going through telephone messages between the couple line by line, Mr. Nel pointed to one in which Mr. Pistorius had mocked her for making “annoying” accents. In one exchange, he told her to stop chewing gum in public. Mr. Nel also sought to poke holes in the narrative of events presented by Mr. Pistorius, who has depicted his relationship with Ms. Steenkamp, a law graduate, model and budding reality TV star, as warm and loving. Reading line by line from messages sent from their cellphones, the prosecutor characterized Mr. Pistorius as a man who ridiculed Ms. Steenkamp and who persistently blamed others for mishaps.
“You picked on her incessantly,” Mr. Nel said. “It’s all about you,” he said repeatedly. “It’s all about Mr. Pistorius. That is what your relationship was all about.” He added: “Reeva believed you treated her very badly.” In one message read to the court, Mr. Pistorius mocked Ms. Steenkamp for speaking in “annoying” accents. In another, he told her to stop chewing gum in public. Ms. Steenkamp, meanwhile, objected to Mr. Pistorius playing a rap song by Kendrick Lamar, apparently making a reference to the song’s lyrics, which include an expletive and the words “Don’t Kill My Vibe.”
“Apart from ‘I miss you,’ boo hoo hoo, you never wrote a long message saying how you felt about her,” Mr. Nel said. “Your messages were only about you.” “You picked on her incessantly,” Mr. Nel said.
Mr. Pistorius, 27, has denied a charge of premeditated murder, which carries a minimum 25-year jail term, saying he shot Ms. Steenkamp, 29, by mistake, believing an intruder at his home was about to attack him when he fired four rounds from a handgun through a locked bathroom door while she was inside. “It’s all about Mr. Pistorius,” he continued. “That is what your relationship was all about.” He added, “Reeva believed you treated her very badly.”
Mr. Pistorius, a double amputee track star who competes on scythe-like prosthetic blades and who is the world’s best-known disabled athlete, faced Mr. Nel for the first time on Wednesday. The prosecutor’s tactics have earned him the nickname “the pit bull.” “Apart from ‘I miss you,’ boo-hoo-hoo, you never wrote a long message saying how you felt about her,” Mr. Nel said. “Your messages were only about you.”
The trial, in the South African capital, Pretoria, is being broadcast live, although Mr. Pistorius is kept off-camera under an earlier court ruling. Mr. Pistorius, 27, has denied a charge of premeditated murder, which carries a minimum jail term of 25 years. He says that he shot Ms. Steenkamp, 29, by mistake when he fired four rounds from a handgun through a locked bathroom door, believing that an intruder in his home was about to attack him.
From the start, Mr. Nel set a pugnacious tone, challenging Mr. Pistorius to take responsibility for the killing, goading him in an attempt to undermine his composure and producing video images that showed him blasting a head-size watermelon with high-powered ammunition. Mr. Pistorius, who competes on scythe-like prosthetic blades and is the world’s best-known disabled athlete, faced the prosecutor for the first time on Wednesday, in what became an emotional and acrimonious day in court. Mr. Nel’s tactics have earned him the nickname “the pit bull.”
Then, in a move that brought gasps to the courtroom, Mr. Nel taunted Mr. Pistorius with a photograph of the bloodied, shot-open head of Ms. Steenkamp. On Thursday, the prosecutor challenged Mr. Pistorius’s argument that he had acted in self-defense, to fend off intruders, when he fired four times through the bathroom door. There had been no intruders, Mr. Nel said, no ladder on the side of the house, nor an imminent threat as Mr. Pistorius claimed. “We know for a fact you had no reason to shoot,” he said.
“That’s it — have a look, Mr. Pistorius!” the prosecutor said as Mr. Pistorius sat, stunned, in the witness box, seeming to crumple in on himself. “I know you don’t want to, because you don’t want to take responsibility, but it’s time that you look at it. Take responsibility for what you’ve done, Mr. Pistorius.” “It was an accident,” Mr. Pistorius replied.
But the runner refused to look. “I’m tormented by what I saw and felt that night,” he said. “As I picked Reeva up, my fingers touched her head. I remember. I don’t have to look at a picture. I was there.” From the start of his cross-examination, Mr. Nel has set a pugnacious tone, challenging Mr. Pistorius to take responsibility for the killing, seeking to undermine the defendant’s composure and producing video images that showed the athlete blasting a head-size watermelon with high-powered ammunition.
After the hours of cross-examination, Mr. Pistorius seemed drained but Mr. Nel left him in no doubt that there was more to come. “I’m not going to go away,” the prosecutor told the athlete. In a move that brought gasps to the courtroom on Wednesday, Mr. Nel taunted Mr. Pistorius with a photograph of the bloodied, shot-open head of Ms. Steenkamp.
True to his word, Mr. Nel dwelled at length on Thursday on social media messages between Mr. Pistorius and Ms. Steenkamp, returning repeatedly to the assertion that, in his relationship with Ms. Steenkamp, “It’s all about Mr. Pistorius.” “That’s it — have a look, Mr. Pistorius!” the prosecutor said as the athlete sat, stunned and appearing diminished, in the witness box. “I know you don’t want to, because you don’t want to take responsibility, but it’s time that you look at it. Take responsibility for what you’ve done, Mr. Pistorius.”
“Part of me was jealous and insecure,” Mr. Pistorius said. The runner refused to look.
Mr. Nel was apparently seeking to neutralize the effort of earlier testimony in which Mr. Pistorius depicted his relationship with Ms. Steenkamp, a law graduate, model and budding reality TV star, as warm and loving. Instead, reading line-by-line from messages taken from their cellphones, he depicted Mr. Pistorius as a man who found fault with Ms. Steenkamp and persistently blamed others for mishaps. Mr. Pistorius also faces charges related to firearms possession. The prosecution has sought to portray him as a trigger-happy gun enthusiast whose loaded weapon was ever-present, whether he was driving, swimming with friends or sleeping at home. He is described as having shot a gun out of the open sunroof of a car one time. In a separate episode, his handgun went off in a busy restaurant when there were children nearby.
Mr. Nel said he found the words “I love you” only twice in text messages on Ms. Steenkamp’s phone, both times addressed to her mother. When questioned about the events at the restaurant, in Johannesburg, Mr. Pistorius said that he had not pulled the trigger, although he conceded that the gun had gone off. Mr. Nel responded sarcastically that the account was a “miracle,” noting that a police expert had testified that the gun could not have fired unless someone had pulled the trigger. “You fired that gun,” the prosecutor said. “You are lying.”
“Never to you and you never to her,” the prosecutor told Mr. Pistorius, accusing him of treating her badly, then apologizing. Mr. Nel told the court that Mr. Pistorius had tried to cover up the incident, and had asked Ms. Steenkamp not to discuss it with the news media.
Apart from the murder charge, Mr. Pistorius also faces charges related to possessing firearms, and the prosecution has sought to portray him as reckless and trigger-happy. In one case, he is accused of shooting a gun out of the open sunroof of a car. In another, he is accused of firing a handgun in a busy restaurant. Mr. Pistorius admitted that he had made a mistake at the time. “It was a stupid thing to do. It was negligent,” he said.
Mr. Nel challenged Mr. Pistorius on the incident at the restaurant when Mr. Pistorius held a gun that discharged with customers, including children, nearby. Mr. Pistorius insisted that he didn’t pull the trigger, which Mr. Nel said was impossible. “This is such an amazing incident. You never touched the trigger, and the gun went off,” Mr. Nel said. Mr. Nel also questioned Mr. Pistorius about why he kept a loaded gun and ammunition in his bedside table, including on the day of Ms. Steenkamp’s death, rather than storing them securely in a safe. The prosecutor pointed out that the athlete had also broken the law by storing ammunition for his father.
“It was a stupid thing to do. It was negligent,” Mr. Pistorius said. Mr. Pistorius replied that he kept a loaded gun at all times because of fears for his personal safety. “I carried my firearm wherever I am, my lady,” Mr. Pistorius told the judge, Thokozile Matilda Masipa.
Mr. Pistorius told the court that he was a gun enthusiast who had grown up in a family where his parents had guns. He had applied for a license to collect firearms. The prosecutor called him “negligent.”
The athlete described himself as a gun enthusiast and said that he had grown up in a house with weapons.
At one point during his testimony, Mr. Nel snickered. That prompted a rare intervention from Judge Masipa, who appeared to be addressing the prosecutor and the gallery but whose comments could be heard far and wide, as the trial is being followed around the world.
“You possibly think this is entertainment,” the judge said. “It is not.”