Reeva ‘at times emotional’ – Oscar
Reeva Steenkamp could at times be an "emotional person", paralympian Oscar Pistorius testified in his murder trial in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
PICTURE SUPPLIED: Reeva Steenkamp. Picture: Ice Model Management
“I think Reeva liked writing things down more. She was at times also an emotional person. She got her back up against the wall fairly easily,” Pistorius told the court.
His lawyer Barry Roux was leading him in giving evidence about WhatsApp messages the couple exchanged in February 2013, days before he killed her.
“I don’t often engage in an argument over text. Things don’t get put correctly or emotions don’t get portrayed in the right way.”
Pistorius was asked about a text message exchange between the couple on February 7, in which Steenkamp told the athlete: “I can’t be attacked by outsiders and be attacked by you” and that he did not “make her feel like a lady tonight”.
Asked by Roux what the context of this message was, Pistorius said they had been at an event. He said he had to leave and asked Steenkamp not to stop and talk to anyone on the way out as he had training the following morning.
“She stopped and talked to a friend and we left 40 to 50 minutes later. On the way to the car we started arguing.”
Roux asked him what was said in the car.
“I just said to her it was important for me to leave early tonight, I’ve got an extremely hard training session the next day.”
He said the next morning he spoke to her and everything was fine between them.
Pistorius is accused of the murder of Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse on February 14 last year. He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder.
Pistorius is also charged with contraventions of the Firearms Control Act. He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.
On September 30, 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
– Sapa
