Pistorius breaks down in court, forcing trial adjournment

Oscar Pistorius broke down in tears in the dock today, forcing an adjournment in his murder trial, as he recalled the moment he discovered he had shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp dead.

“I sat over Reeva,” the athlete testified before sobbing loudly, putting his head in his hands and letting out a barely intelligible cry “she wasn’t breathing”.

Sobbing uncontrollably, Oscar Pistorius gave a harrowing account today of the moment he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, before breaking down in court, forcing the judge to adjourn his murder trial.

Overwrought, the star athlete described how in the dead of night on Valentine’s Day 2013 he heard a noise and rushed to his bathroom with his gun, believing there was an intruder in his home.

“Then I heard a noise from inside the toilet, what I perceived to be someone coming out of the toilet,” Pistorius said, unable to fight back the tears.

“Before I knew it I’d fired four shots at the door,” he said, his voice cracking with anguish.

Pistorius is on trial facing a life sentence for deliberating murdering Steenkamp, a charge he denies.

“My ears were ringing, I didn’t hear anything,” Pistorius continued. He shouted for Steenkamp to phone the police, and rushed back into the room.

“I kept on shouting for Reeva.”

When she did not respond Pistorius said he realised he may have made a terrible mistake and rushed back to the bathroom to break down the door.

There, he found her fatally injured.

“I sat over Reeva,” the athlete testified sobbing loudly and putting his head in his hands and before letting out the barely intelligible cry, “she wasn’t breathing”.

After a brief adjournment, his lawyer Barry Roux came back to say his client was in no state to continue.

The case was adjourned until Wednesday.

Earlier, Pistorius had explained how the couple had gone to bed around 10pm after a quiet evening, but Pistorius woke up in the dead of night to bring in two fans he had left outside to cool his bedroom.

“That’s the moment that everything changed,” he said, after he heard the sound coming from the bathroom.

“The first thing that ran through my mind was that I needed to arm myself,” he said under defence lawyer Barry Roux’s gentle coaxing.

“I was overcome with fear. I wasn’t sure where to point the firearm. I had it pointed at the toilet but my eyes were going to the window and the toilet,” he said.

“I wasn’t sure if someone was going to come out of the toilet attacking me,” he said, his voice quavering.

His sister Aimee was crying softly with her head bowed, while Steenkamp’s mother June sat impassively in the public gallery.

He is likely to remain on the stand most of the week as his extensive testimony led by his defence team is expected to be followed by gruelling and lengthy cross-examination by the prosecution.

Cape Town-based criminal advocate William Booth, who is not participating in the trial, said much will depend on how Pistorius holds up in that second phase.

The trial is slated to run to at least mid-May.