Why so few journos?, asks prosecutor

“How come you guys are less?” a visibly surprised Johnson asked, looking at the large gaps on the six benches in the gallery.

She was speaking minutes before the expected start of proceedings around 9.30am.

“You guys stressed me out for a goddamn week,” she joked, referring to preparations for the judgment.

Judge Thokozile Masipa is expected to deliver her judgment over two days.

Johnson said the free spaces would be given to journalists in the overflow court, or members of the public.

Pistorius is accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva 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 about to emerge and attack him. She was hit in the hip, arm, and head.

The paralympian also faces three charges of contravening the Firearms Control Act – one of illegal possession of ammunition and two of discharging a firearm in public. 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