A tearful Oscar Pistorius on Monday began his testimony by apologising to the Steenkamp family for all that happened.
Pistorius told a Pretoria Court on Monday: “There hasn’t been a moment since this tragedy happened that I haven’t thought about your family.
“I wake up every morning and you are the first people I think of.
“I can’t imagine the pain and emptiness I caused you and your family.
“I was simply trying to protect Reeva.
“When she went to bed that night she felt loved.”
Pistorius had earlier told the court that he had been on anti-depressants and sedatives since killing Reeva Steenkamp and that he is “scared to sleep”.
He added: “I have terrible nightmares about things that happened that night, where I wake up and I can smell blood.”
Pistorius, the 27-year-old South African Paralympic sprinter, wept and retched into a bucket in court on Monday during graphic forensic testimony about the death of Steenkamp.
The sprinter had sat in the dock with his head buried in his hands, as the first defence witness, Jannie Botha, described the multiple bullet wounds sustained by Steenkamp.
Convulsed by sobbing, he threw up occasionally into a plastic bucket, as had happened during previous sessions last month.
Then, the court had heard details of Steenkamp’s autopsy and reviewed pictures of the blood-stained toilet and bathroom.
Pistorius, nicknamed the “Blade Runner” due to the carbon-fibre prosthetic limbs he uses in competition, was accused of killing Steenkamp deliberately by firing four rounds from a 9 mm pistol.
The shots were fired through a locked toilet door, after an argument.
During his testimony, Botha, a Forensic Pathologist, reviewed Steenkamp’s wounds and the sequence in which the bullets hit her.
This was a crucial detail, since several witnesses have testified to hearing a woman’s screams during a volley of shots in the early hours of February 14.
Botha agreed with state pathologist, Gert Saayman, that the first round hit her in the hip, causing her to collapse.
He said the final shot hit Steenkamp in the head, killing her almost instantly.
The sprinter was expected to take the stand later on Monday in his own defence.
Pistorius has pleaded not guilty, saying he mistook the 29-year-old model and law graduate Steenkamp for an intruder hiding in the toilet at his luxury Pretoria home.
In the five weeks since the trial began, Pistorius has appeared fragile and annoyed, frequently crying in court and being physically sick when the gruesome details of Steenkamp’s death were discussed.
The trial, now into its 17th day, has gripped South Africa and millions of athletics fans around the world who saw Pistorius as a symbol of triumph over physical adversity.
Pistorius faces at least 25 years in prison, if found guilty of murder.
dpa/Reuters/NAN.
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