Oscar Pistorius: The Truth

November 4th, 2012.

Back from his Olympic triumph in London,

Oscar Pistorius is on the red carpet with a new girlfriend -

Reeva Steenkamp.

The media want an interview, but her voice is weak.

I'm sick. Do you want to do a little one?

It's their first date - arranged just an hour and a half earlier.

Hi, I'm Oscar's date tonight.

He needed a date at the last minute, so he's like,

"Reeva, just throw your stuff together and come and be my date."

-Why, she's asked, is Oscar free tonight?

-It's funny, hey?

I don't know how that worked out.

Is she looking forward to her surprise night out?

I'm excited to, like, just enjoy the evening.

Entertainment, just everything as a whole.

It's a fun night out, something different.

Not a club, nothing boring. It's exciting.

And what does she think of her date, Oscar Pistorius?

Oscar is a very, very sexy boy.

But he doesn't do it in, like, an arrogant, obnoxious way.

He does it in a very classy, understated...

He has a good, simple suit on.

Yeah. He's a gentleman. Thank you!

On count one, murder.

The accused is found not guilty and is discharged.

Instead he is found guilty of culpable homicide.

-OSCAR:

-Before I knew it, I fired four shots at the door.

In this programme - behind the scenes of

the Pistorius trial, with the parents of the victim.

Only people that have gone through this will understand.

My child, my most precious child, is gone.

I'm Rick Edwards.

Within days of the shooting, I travelled to South Africa

for BBC Three to find out what really happened.

Tonight, the dramatic courtroom moments

broadcast to a worldwide audience.

-REPORTER:

-They are calling this the trial of the century.

The private, fearful text message from Reeva to Oscar...

"I'm scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me

"and of how you will react to me."

..the defence video and messages

that suggested a closer relationship...

-OSCAR:

-She says, "I think today is a good day to tell you"

and then it says,

"I love you."

I realise that she cared for him. She was looking for a soul mate.

You killed Reeva Steenkamp, that's what you did.

-OSCAR:

-My mistake was that I took Reeva's life, My Lady.

You killed her - you shot and killed her.

But Pistorius insists it was a tragic accident.

-OSCAR:

-I thought that there was a burglar

that was gaining entry into my home.

And I grabbed my firearm from underneath the bed.

I was simply trying to protect Reeva.

Mr Pistorius, please stand up.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled for next month.

Tonight, Reeva's parents speak about the verdict, and the future.

WOMAN: The trial of the decade got under way today in

the High Court in Pretoria.

On March 3rd, 2014,

the eyes of the world were focused on a courtroom in Pretoria.

In South Africa,

the long-awaited trial has begun of the world-famous athlete

and, until last year, national hero, Oscar Pistorius.

The huge media entourage was on alert for the main arrivals.

The accused - Oscar Pistorius.

An international hero and inspiration for millions as

the first double-amputee to compete in the Olympic Games.

Now, Pistorius, pleading not guilty, was facing a charge of

premeditated murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp,

a model, reality TV star and daughter of June Steenkamp.

She had a promising future, everything. And now it's gone.

And he's got to take responsibility for that

no matter what the outcome is.

Reeva's mum made a 700-mile journey for the opening of the trial,

with a front-row seat reserved.

Let us through, please.

I'm Advocate de Bruyn, and I've got the victim's mother here,

Mrs Steenkamp, and they arranged that we can go right though the gate.

-OK.

-OK, please.

The tension was clear.

-PRODUCER:

-How are you feeling?

-Very nervous.

Do you maybe want to share with us what's going through your mind?

No.

I was sort of preparing myself to be strong.

And I didn't want to speak about it, I just wanted to carry on.

Keep my dignity and be...

who I...I am.

But first, she and her lawyer had to brave the media crush

-in the torrential rain.

-It was very hectic.

They wouldn't move out the way, you know?

They kind of threw the umbrellas on the floor

cos it was raining, and just trodden on them

because they were just wanting to get the pictures.

Minutes later, flanked by bodyguards,

Oscar Pistorius appeared,

charging through a phalanx of flashing cameras without stopping.

June Steenkamp wanted the answer to the central question -

why was her daughter killed?

And she wanted to look into the eyes of the man who fired the gun.

I've never met him, you know?

I've never met him at all.

And he must see me, that I am there.

This is the mother of the child that you've killed,

the woman that you've killed.

And that's... Just that impact, the reason that I want to go.

Days before her first sight of Oscar Pistorius,

700 miles away in Port Elizabeth on the Indian Ocean coast,

June Steenkamp and Reeva's father, Barry,

allowed our cameras inside their home.

Preparing for the trial, but trying to keep an open mind

about what happened to Reeva.

I've got no revengeful feelings.

And I've forgiven Oscar for what he's done.

But, I mean, he has killed her.

And even if he made a mistake, it's a huge mistake.

It's cost her her life.

And us, cost us Reeva's life.

I've got my...

..own feelings inside...

..as to what happened.

But what I do want to do...

..is to just to talk to him, to have a chat to him, man to man.

Guilty or not guilty, whatever it is.

I would like to have a talk.

That would help me a lot.

June Steenkamp's last conversation with her daughter

was on February 13, 2013,

as Reeva drove to the home of Oscar Pistorius.

Just before 6pm, a surveillance camera filmed Reeva,

behind the wheel of her silver Mini, chatting and smiling with

the guards who patrolled the high-security, gated community.

Ten minutes later, Oscar arrived, driving a white BMW.

By 10pm, Oscar Pistorius said the couple had eaten

and were getting ready for bed.

He'd taken off his prosthetic legs and was watching TV,

while Reeva was doing her yoga exercises.

Not much later, according to Pistorius,

they were both fast asleep.

Reeva's Valentine's Day gift and card to Oscar was unopened.

We've recreated the scene fully lit to give you an idea of

the layout of the bedroom and the en-suite bathroom.

In Oscar Pistorius's sworn testimony,

the events happened in pitch dark in the middle of the night.

He said that, unusually, he was on the left-hand side of the bed

as we look at it here, because he had a shoulder problem.

He and Reeva had swapped sides.

In his sworn affidavit for his bail hearing, Oscar Pistorius'

version of events starts just after three o'clock in the morning.

I woke up, went onto the balcony to bring

the fan in and closed the sliding doors, the blinds and the curtains.

I heard a noise in the bathroom,

and realised that someone was in the bathroom.

Too scared to switch on the lights,

he says he didn't put on his prosthetic legs,

but walked on his stumps towards the noise.

I grabbed my 9mm pistol from underneath my bed.

On my way to the bathroom I screamed the words to the effect for him

or them to get out of my house and for Reeva to phone the police.

It was pitch dark in the bedroom and I thought Reeva was in bed.

From the bathroom doorway, he says he saw an open window.

Again, he heard noises, coming from behind the door.

He aimed his 9mm pistol.

I fired shots at the toilet door

and shouted to Reeva to phone the police.

She did not respond and I moved backwards out of the bathroom,

keeping my eyes on the bathroom entrance.

Everything was pitch dark in the bedroom

and I was still too scared to switch on a light.

Reeva was not responding.

When I reached the bed, I realised that Reeva was not in bed.

That is when it dawned on me

that it could have been her who was in the toilet.

I returned to the bathroom calling her name.

I tried to open the toilet door, but it was locked.

I rushed back into the bedroom and opened the sliding door,

exiting onto the balcony and screamed for help.

It's believed the shooting happened between 3:12 and 3:14am.

After shouting for help, Oscar made several phone calls.

The first, at 3:19, was to a neighbour, Johan Stander.

Next, at 3:20, he called an ambulance. Then, estate security.

Oscar carried Reeva down these stairs, photographed later,

showing a trail of blood.

Neighbours arrived, and in court recalled the scene.

As I approached the lady,

there was a man on his knees on the left side.

He said: "I shot her, I thought she was a burglar and I shot her."

He's crying.

He's praying.

He's asking God to help him.

He was torn apart.

Broken. Desperate.

Pleading.

He kept on asking me, "Where's the ambulance?

"Where's the ambulance? Where are they?

"Please, Carice, where are they?"

Begging me, and I just kept on telling him, "They're coming.

"They're coming, Oscar, please. They're coming."

By the time the ambulance and police arrived, it was already too late.

Inspecting the scene inside the house,

detectives were immediately suspicious of Oscar's story.

There was blood in the bedroom and damage to bathroom tiles.

It looked like there'd been a fight.

Reeva's bag was packed, and she'd taken her mobile phone from

the bedroom to the bathroom, locking herself inside the toilet cubicle.

His body marked with Reeva's blood,

Oscar Pistorius was photographed, arrested and jailed.

Within hours, everyone woke to the news.

Facing a murder charge, the South African Olympic and Paralympic star

Oscar Pistorius is held after his girlfriend is shot dead.

To many, it was hard to believe,

Oscar Pistorius was admired around the world.

But in South Africa, he was a megastar.

The Oscar Pistorius story is epic.

Born disabled, his lower legs were amputated

when he was just 11 months old.

Yet through strength and determination,

he made sporting history.

2012 was his professional peak - two gold medals, two world records

and the first double amputee to take part in the Olympics,

his nation's standard bearer.

Speaking just before London 2012,

Pistorius appeared to acknowledge that he carried the hopes of many.

I really don't want to mess up the last six years, really,

that I've put together.

There have been not only my sacrifices,

but a lot of people that have invested time and money into me.

And it wouldn't be fair on anyone if I, you know,

kind of lived a reckless lifestyle.

The money was rolling in,

an estimated £1.3 million a year in sponsorship.

And the symbols of success - celebrity friends, fast sports cars,

plus a new-found interest in guns,

buying a 9mm pistol and applying for six firearm licences.

In November 2012, back home from London, Oscar Pistorius

started appearing in public with Reeva Steenkamp.

The media couldn't get enough of the couple,

two people who seemed to have everything.

The Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius

has been charged with murder.

So, when news broke of a shooting at the Pistorius home...

The incident happened in Pretoria in the early hours of the morning.

..it reverberated around the world.

As a South African journalist,

and as a South African, actually,

I mean, this is a very conflicted narrative.

Because you want to believe him.

You really, really, really, really want to believe him.

Was Oscar telling the truth?

Was it, as he said, all a tragic accident?

Or were the police right? Was it premeditated murder?

He killed her, there is no doubt of the fact that he killed her.

But what was his intention?

It was a question that haunted Reeva's parents, June

and Barry Steenkamp.

She must have suffered so much in that toilet.

Why couldn't I be protecting her?

Cos we always protected her.

We have to learn to live without Reeva now.

But she was such a big part of our life.

She never really let go of us.

You know, a child grows up, they move on.

But she was always... Every Saturday she phoned me.

Every Sunday she phoned her father.

Only people that have gone through this will understand.

It's easy for other people to look in and see and listen

and have their thoughts.

But only once they've gone through it will they know what we feel.

Reeva Steenkamp was Barry and June's only child together.

They were both divorcees with families when they met

and married in 1981.

Beautiful outside and inside, that was her quality.

Caring and loving for others.

Probably before herself.

Before she would put herself, she would put others before her.

Well, when she was two, two years old,

she was in the cupboard with the flour and toothpaste...

Yeah, her whole face is covered in the flour.

-She's emptied the whole cupboard.

-Yeah.

The photoshoot for the wedding dresses on the beach.

Out of all the photographs... this is my favourite one.

She...loved dressing up that way with, like, wedding dresses on.

It just makes Barry think of...

what she would have been in her own wedding, you know?

The Steenkamp home has become a shrine to Reeva.

Every photograph, school certificate and souvenir proudly displayed.

Among the treasured possessions, two very special paintings

by a teenage girl which, for Mum and Dad, now suggest a hidden message.

Here's Reeva.

Here in... No.

In the field next door, there's a man with a gun

and he's standing under a tree and it's pointing towards Reeva.

And she's standing here and she has her wings.

And here are the steps going to heaven.

That's how I feel, that she...

She painted this when she was 15 years old.

So it's quite like a premonition, almost.

And it is unbelievable, if you think of it.

And here's another one which is even more uncanny and...

..chilling than the other one.

Also of a painting that Reeva done for us when she was young.

When we...

When the newspapers came out and the media came out

and the first picture that was shown was with Reeva on the toilet seat

where she had been killed.

-And it's virtually identical.

-The position and everything.

The position that they had shown in the newspapers.

And I just couldn't believe it.

Images with particular meaning for parents who'd watched

the transformation of the thoughtful schoolgirl

into top celebrity model.

A winning combination of intelligence, glamour

and steely determination.

I thought this was going to be the craziest outfit,

but really it's not. I've seen some insane things today.

The legal graduate intended to make the law her future.

But in 2012, Reeva's TV career was taking off...

We are at the Wrangler launch...

..and she was using her growing fame to campaign -

speaking out on violence against women.

One just wonders what she could have done,

wonderful things in the world.

Especially for the abused women she was going to work for.

Just try and go to schools.

And the day she was killed,

the next day she was going to a school to speak to young girls

about abused women and how they must find a voice.

They don't have to keep quiet. They can...

And she was going to do work in that direction, you know.

That she was in the limelight so she could speak now

and be heard about that.

In South Africa, everyone heard about Reeva Steenkamp the moment

she was first seen on a red-carpet date with Oscar Pistorius.

Hi. I'm Oscar's date tonight.

I said to myself, "Oh, here we go."

I thought most probably it's one of these things that

where they go out and

-the limelight and partner together, you know, as far as...

-In events.

Advertising or events are concerned, that is what I thought.

Oscar and Reeva dated for three months, but Reeva's parents

had almost no contact with the Olympic star.

Though there was one memorable phone call.

She was in the car with him.

And she said, "Mummy, Oscar's driving like an absolute lunatic.

And she said, "I'm afraid. I'm scared."

So I said, "You put him on the phone to me and I will talk to him."

And I said, "If you hurt my baby

"I will have you bumped off"

or "wiped out," one of the two.

And he straightaway said he's very sorry and then he put the phone down.

And Reeva said, "He slowed down immediately."

But weeks later, it would be a very different story.

Reeva was dead, killed by Oscar.

Preparing to travel to the trial,

where Pistorius was to claim his innocence,

Reeva's mother had no thoughts of revenge.

It's too late for that.

What good is that going to do?

That's just going to hurt me as a person.

That's just going to rot inside me.

I will just leave it up to the law.

They must make the decision and then they must make the punishment.

And I don't have things in my head that

I want him to suffer or be, you know...

..in jail for the rest of his life.

It's not what I want.

But he must take responsibility for what he's done,

for this huge, what he says, is a mistake.

It's a huge mistake.

I'm sure he could have checked better or whatever.

Me personally, I'd hate to be Oscar Pistorius.

The way he must be feeling now with the case coming up...

..fear and worry, this and that.

That's... I don't actually wish on my worst enemy.

-PRODUCER:

-Some people might find it fascinating

that you feel for him at this stage.

What would you say to them?

I wouldn't like to be him, no. I wouldn't like to be in his shoes.

I wouldn't like to have his feelings this evening and tomorrow.

It must be the most awful thing to go out there

and fight for your life, whether you're wrong or right.

And that's it.

-But he's the man who killed your daughter.

-Yes.

That is right. Don't... We don't forget that. We know that.

But we do understand, like, what other people,

whether innocent or guilty, what they feel like as well.

Both parents had intended to make the journey to the trial,

accompanied by June's other daughter Simone, Reeva's half-sister,

but at the last minute, plans had to change.

Yes, I have had a little bit of a problem.

He had a stroke. He had a little stroke.

But still, it went through his brain

and collapsed the whole one side of his face.

-Yeah, but anyway, it's...

-It's a warning, you know? It's a warning.

-But that's...

-That he mustn't get upset about things.

-Yeah.

It's the most awful feeling that June

and Simone, going up for the trial...

..and I can't take it. Later on, yes,

I will most probably...

..build up enough courage to go.

They knew that in court the full extent

of Reeva's injuries would be made public for

the first time, details they didn't want to hear.

-No, that's...

-Awful.

-No.

-That's going to be the worst.

-We've been warned about that.

-Yeah.

-That there will be certain gruesome...

-..pictures or details.

-We can't do that.

We want to know what happened, but we can't do that.

It would just be too much.

381 days after Reeva was killed,

with a goodbye kiss for Reeva's dad,

her mum set off for the murder trial.

It was the first time that June Steenkamp would see Oscar Pistorius.

And it'll be very hard for me to go there, but I want to go there.

She believed it would be an important moment for herself

and for Oscar.

I think he has to see me,

the mother, the person who gave birth to her.

That he's taken that away.

That's what I want to see.

That's why I want to look in his face and he must look in mine.

He must see now that I am there.

For justice for Reeva, no matter what happened.

And the truth, obviously.

But the encounter she imagined didn't quite happen.

He came in and he just looked straight in front of him.

He didn't look at me or anything.

He...he just walked straight ahead.

And almost with his head slightly down,

or maybe away from me, you know?

So I don't know if that was on purpose or what.

-PROSECUTOR:

-The first count against the accused,

count one is one of murder.

In the district of Pretoria, the accused did unlawfully

and intentionally kill a person, to wit, Reeva Steenkamp.

-JUDGE:

-Do you understand the charges, Mr Pistorius?

-I do, My Lady.

-How do you plead?

Not guilty, My Lady.

JUNE: I wasn't prepared for him to say not guilty.

But obviously he was saying not guilty to premeditated murder.

But my daughter is dead.

She's never coming back.

In the year since Reeva's death,

June Steenkamp said that she hadn't been able to fully grieve.

But, in the courtroom, reality finally set in.

I understood that she's gone.

That was what came home to me.

It just is the realisation that she's actually dead.

This is now the truth. This has happened, it's reality.

June Steenkamp listened to Oscar's explanation,

read by his defence team.

"Whilst I admit that I inflicted the fatal gunshot wounds to Reeva,

"this occurrence was indeed an accident,

"and I had mistakenly believed that an intruder or intruders

"had entered my home and posed an imminent threat to Reeva and me."

Oscar Pistorius sat in the dock as

the prosecutor made the case against him.

We argue that the accused version...

The charge was that he'd invented his story about an intruder -

he always knew it was Reeva behind the door.

The only inference from the circumstantial evidence...

..would be that the accused shot

and killed the deceased with the direct intent to kill.

The world was watching on live television.

Looks like the trial's about to start.

Witnesses had a choice -

appear on camera or only have their voices heard.

The prosecution would be first to present its case.

Their first witness chose to stay off-camera.

Michelle Burger, a university lecturer,

lived 193 yards from Oscar Pistorius.

As with every witness, she addressed her answers to the judge,

calling her "My Lady".

I was woken up by a woman's petrified screams.

My Lady, what I can say to the court is her shouts,

her screams were petrifying.

I knew something terrible was happening in that house.

I thought they were being attacked in their house.

You only shout like that if your life is really threatened.

But just before the gunshots, it was blood-curdling.

It was something that leaves you cold.

It's something you can't portray in the court.

You can't explain it,

you just know that woman's life was really threatened.

Barry Roux, who led the Pistorius defence team,

challenged the witness.

First, was she sure she heard gunshots,

or the sound of a cricket bat striking the door?

Why could it not have been the cricket bat

-that you heard bashing the door?

-My Lady,

I clearly heard four gunshots after I made the telephone call.

Then, did she really hear Reeva screaming? Or was it Oscar?

My Lady, I'm sure what I heard was a woman,

so I'm quite convinced it wasn't Mr Pistorius.

-I know you believe you heard it.

-Yeah.

All I say is, when he's anxious, his voice, when it pitches,

it sounds like a woman screaming.

Day one had been emotional and exhausting,

and at the end, June Steenkamp came face-to-face not with Oscar,

but with his brother Carl.

It was a surprise. Because no-one from the family has ever

come towards me to say anything.

They said they're sorry and they've done nothing,

and they're also struggling with their problems.

So I accept that.

Reliving the events of the night

became unbearable for some witnesses.

-WOMAN:

-It was awful to hear her shout before the shots.

Madam, I know that you're emotional now. This is almost done.

The prosecution said that if neighbours could hear

a woman screaming before and during gunshots,

Pistorius must have known it was Reeva, not an intruder.

The Pistorius defence team claimed the high-pitched screams

"could" have come from Oscar, not a woman.

From what you assumed to have been a woman?

-WOMAN:

-That's correct.

But you cannot be 100% correct in that assertion, can you?

In my recollection,

I'm 100% absolutely convinced it was a female.

Reeva's mum had returned home after day one.

But as week three began, she was back in court.

I feel that I have to be there.

That my presence is a good thing for the people around me.

To see that I'm there.

Because there were so many questions.

"Why isn't June there?" You know?

"Why am I not there?" I must be there.

And I just have to be strong.

Again, she was in the same room as Oscar Pistorius.

This time, she was able to look him in the face.

He pointedly looked at me, stopped in front of me, and said,

"Good morning."

That was it.

Barry Bateman, a journalist and author of a book on the case,

is seen in this photo, having witnessed the moment.

And there was a slight recognition from June as well. But she's been,

you know, quite brave to be there, and to have to listen to this here,

and have to come face to face with the man who shot her daughter.

Days earlier, the court had heard

the full extent of Reeva's fatal injuries.

The autopsy report was so distressing, the judge took action.

There shall be no broadcast of the evidence.

In court, Oscar Pistorius wept and vomited as

the pathologist testified.

He became quite emotional,

there were times when you could see he was physically ill.

You could hear him gagging.

It was quite nasty in court listening to this.

As more evidence emerged,

June Steenkamp's feelings began to harden.

I'm angry now, when I hear the details of exactly what happened.

I'm angry now. I'm still forgiving, but I'm angry.

I think just the injuries,

and the fear that she must have had in that bathroom.

Those are the things that get to me.

Straight to my soul. My heart and my soul.

She listened to the police ballistics expert

describe how he believed her daughter was killed.

My opinion was that there was four shots fired at the crime scene.

Captain Christiaan Mangena said Reeva was standing behind the door

and facing it, when the first shot hit her right hip.

After the infliction of the wound on the hip,

she fell down on top of a magazine rack.

The deceased was most probably seated in a defensive position,

something like in this position.

The arm was lifted up and was in front of her chest.

Three shots, to be that "doof-doof-doof".

Pistorius covered his own head.

He said he didn't know Reeva was behind the door.

Meanwhile, June Steenkamp looked straight ahead.

I just try and make myself strong.

I don't want to be emotional in front of other people.

That is one thing I don't want to be.

And then when I come home,

then everything comes out, then I can cry.

Because it is... it's too emotional for me.

It's too much to ask any mother to do.

Too much for any mother to see that's their child

and what they've been through, what they've suffered, how they died.

The dramatic finale of the prosecution case -

a text from Reeva to Oscar, three weeks before she was killed.

"I'm scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me

"and of how you will react to me."

But Oscar's advocate, Barry Roux, fought back,

introducing affectionate text messages between the couple

and playing this CCTV footage of Oscar and Reeva kissing.

I'm going to show you this clip and I want you to look at it

and see if that would conform

to the loving e-mails you have seen.

I realise that she cared for him.

She wasn't someone who would

continue a relationship unless she was really interested.

You know? She was looking for a soul mate.

And she seemed, from...

SOME of those messages, she seemed in love.

In love, or falling in love, maybe.

On day 15, after calling 21 witnesses,

the prosecution rested its case.

-I have no further questions.

-Thank you very much.

Heading to court each day

had become one of the hardest parts of the trial for Reeva's mother.

When I'm driving to court I get very emotional,

because I look in the streets, and I know that she's not there.

You understand? She's missing from the whole picture.

Her life's been taken away.

She's never going to have a baby. She's never going to have a wedding.

I'm never going to have her grandchildren.

Those are things that we were looking forward to.

And my child, my most precious child, is gone.

That's just too much for me. He has taken that away from me.

He has taken that away from me.

FEMALE REPORTER: Murder-accused Oscar Pistorius says he relives

the terror of killing Reeva Steenkamp every single day.

Monday, April 7th - Oscar Pistorius takes the stand.

He begins with a direct statement to Reeva's family.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to...

..to Mrs and Mr Steenkamp.

Like some witnesses before him,

Pistorius declined to appear on camera.

I wake up every morning

and you're the first people I think of, the first people I pray for.

I can't imagine the pain

and the sorrow and the emptiness that I've caused you and your family.

I was simply trying to protect Reeva.

I can promise that when she went to bed that night, she felt loved.

He said their relationship was growing stronger.

I was very keen on Reeva.

At times we kind of spoke

and the relationship built up to a point in mid-January,

that we really knew that we started caring about each other,

we started talking about future plans.

In court there was the reference to WhatsApp messages.

Then I sent her a message saying...

Ultimately, the judge said the messages between Reeva and Oscar

had no bearing on the case.

In the witness box, Oscar Pistorius told his story of what happened

on the night Reeva died.

Must have been around... just before eight o'clock.

I came into my room and I put the...

Opened the balcony doors. it was a very humid evening.

He said he put two fans on the balcony

to draw cool air into the room.

He and Reeva then went to bed.

I woke up in the early hours of 14th February.

It was extremely warm in my room.

I sat up in bed,

I noticed that the fans were still running

and that the door was still open,

although the lights had been switched off.

Reeva was still awake. She was obviously not sleeping.

She rolled over to me and she said "Can't you sleep, my bubba?"

And I said, "No, I can't tonight."

Pistorius said he got out of bed and brought in the fans

from the balcony, drawing the curtains to darken the room.

Then he heard a noise.

It was at this point that I heard a window open in the bathroom -

sounded like the window sliding open.

My Lady, that's the moment that everything changed.

I thought that there was a burglar that was gaining entry into my home.

And I grabbed my firearm from underneath the bed.

I shouted for Reeva to get on the floor,

I shouted for her to phone the police.

I got to the entrance of the bathroom.

I stood there for some time.

Not sure how long.

I wasn't sure if somebody was going to come out of the toilet

to attack me.

And then I heard a noise from inside the toilet...

..that I perceived to be somebody coming out of the toilet.

Before I knew it I had fired four shots at the door.

Pistorius said he rushed back to the bedroom to find Reeva.

She wasn't there.

I think it was at that point, My Lady, that...

..that it first dawned upon me

that it could be Reeva that was in the...

in the bathroom or in the toilet.

He said that he quickly put on his prosthetic legs

and tried to kick down the door.

I was screaming and shouting the whole time, and crying out.

I was crying out for the Lord to help me,

I was crying out for Reeva, I was screaming.

The door didn't open, so, he said, he struck it with a cricket bat,

breaking through a wooden panel.

Whilst I leant over the partition to get in, I saw the key

so I took it and unlocked the door

and I flung the door open, I threw it open.

And I sat over Reeva and I cried.

And I don't know how long.

I don't know how long I was there for.

OSCAR SOBS

She wasn't breathing.

-JUDGE:

-We'll take an adjournment.

Court will adjourn.

OSCAR SOBS

Next, Oscar Pistorius' testimony would be challenged.

He was cross-examined by the prosecutor, Gerrie Nel,

nick-named "The Pit Bull".

You made a mistake?

-That's correct.

-You killed a person, that's what you did, isn't it?

-I made a mistake.

-You killed Reeva Steenkamp, that's what you did.

I made a mistake, My Lady.

You're repeating it three times, what was your mistake?

My mistake was that I took Reeva's life, My Lady.

You killed her. You shot and killed her.

-Won't you take responsibility for that?

-I did, My Lady.

Say it, then. Say yes.

"I shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp."

-I did, My Lady.

-OK.

Then the prosecutor introduced this video

of Oscar Pistorius at a shooting range.

-"It's a lot softer than brains but

-BLEEP

-it's like a zombie stopper."

You did, you said, "It's softer than brains". Who else got brains?

I was in that whole sentence, I was referring to a zombie.

What we can see there is the effect

the ammunition had on a watermelon.

-It exploded, am I right?

-That's correct.

You know the same happened to Reeva's head.

It exploded, have a look.

The image was too much for many spectators,

including Reeva's mother and relatives.

We have blurred the photograph.

It had the exact same effect, the bullet that went into her head.

I was there that night.

That's it. Have a look.

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 have done, Mr Pistorius.

My Lady, I have taken responsibility,

by me waiting and not wanting to live my life,

but waiting for my time on this stand,

to tell my story for the respect of Reeva and for myself.

I've taken responsibility but I will not look at her picture

where I'm tormented by what I saw and felt that night.

As I picked Reeva up, my fingers touched her head.

I remember! I don't have to look at her picture! I was there!

The prosecutor questioned why Pistorius didn't know Reeva

was in the bathroom, and why he missed her getting out of bed.

And you didn't see her get up?

-No, I didn't see her get up.

-Why not?

I don't know how she got up out of the bed, I was in close proximity

to her but I didn't see her get out of bed, whether she walked off

the foot of the bed or she got out,

I didn't see that so I can't say.

But at least you will agree with me if I say it is strange

that you did not see her get up, you will agree? She was with you.

It was pitch black and it was behind me,

so it's not strange at all.

The prosecutor closely questioned the details

of Pistorius' version of events.

At that stage when you shouted and screamed at Reeva

to phone the police, she is three metres away from you.

-In a toilet.

-That's correct.

-And she never uttered a word.

-That's correct.

It's not possible. It's not probable.

In fact, you knew Reeva was behind the door and you shot at her,

that's the only thing that makes sense.

-It's not true, My Lady.

-She was talking to you.

She was standing right in front of the toilet door, talking to you,

-when you shot her.

-That's not true, My Lady.

-That's the only...

reasonable explanation for her standing upright.

That's the only reasonable explanation why you shot her

in the head where you did.

That's not true, My Lady.

The cross examination lasted more than four days.

Pistorius broke down several times.

I can see that Mr Pistorius is distressed

and I understand that he should be distressed.

May I then ask that the court just adjourn?

At the end of his testimony,

questioned by his own defence barrister,

Oscar Pistorius read from the Valentine's card

Reeva left for him on the night she died.

"It says on front of the card "Roses are red, violets are blue."

And then on the inside she wrote the date on the left

and on the right she says,

"I think today is a good day to tell you that..."

And then it says, "I love you."

The defence then called other neighbours,

not included in the prosecution case. These neighbours lived closer

to the house but unlike the prosecution witnesses,

said they only heard the cries of a man.

I heard a man crying.

And to me the cry, My Lady, it was a cry of pain.

The person was very desperate for help.

So also, we felt that probably he is in danger.

I then heard the sound of a male person crying.

A very loud sound.

Is it possible to make a sound that would resemble it?

WITNESS WAILS

But in a voice of a man.

Defence witnesses also offered expert testimony on ballistics,

forensics and acoustics.

A sound engineer questioned prosecution evidence

that shouts and screams could be heard 177 metres away.

At 177m away,

if the scream was from the toilet,

it is very unlikely that a listener can hear a scream,

let alone interpret a sound source reliably.

A psychiatrist claimed Oscar Pistorius was suffering

from generalised anxiety disorder,

which may have affected his behaviour on the night.

That the accused present himself as an outpatient

to the medical superintendent of the Weskoppies Hospital.

That theory was ruled out after a 30-day assessment,

though one psychologist's evaluation was presented by the defence.

No evidence could be found to indicate that Mr Pistorius has

the history of abnormal aggression or explosive violence.

When Mr Pistorius' appraisal of a situation is that he might be

physically threatened, a fear response follows which might seem

extraordinary when viewed of a perspective of an able-bodied person

but normal in the context of a disabled person with his history.

The final defence witness was a sports physician

who had worked with Oscar Pistorius for six years.

Professor Wayne Derman told the judge that Pistorius had shown signs

of psychological stress, and that his disability

does make him feel vulnerable.

I've also found Mr Pistorius to be hyper vigilant,

to looking around - it is a scanning for potential threat,

with an end to move oneself out of harm's way.

He recalled his last conversation with Oscar Pistorius

before the shooting.

The call I received from him on 2nd February 2013.

I then asked him how life had settled down after London.

To which he responded that he was at that moment

lying next to the most wonderful girl that he had met.

He also told me that he could not wait for me to meet her.

On August 7th, the trial entered its final stages.

Barry Steenkamp, Reeva's dad,

had recovered sufficiently from his stroke to attend court,

where he came face to face with Oscar Pistorius for the first time.

Summing up, the prosecutor said

Pistorius' version was not reasonably possibly true,

and contained lies.

You tell one and it just becomes too much.

You just have to keep going and keep going with these lies.

The prosecutor focused on the shooting, arguing that

Pistorius would have been aware of the potential consequences.

If you fire four shots into a small cubicle with high-powered firearm

with Black Talon ammunition,

you foresee the possibility that you will kill somebody.

Reeva's parents listened to the closing arguments for the defence.

Advocate Barry Roux said Oscar's version had never changed -

the shooting was a terrible accident.

He was anxious.

He was fearful.

And he stands now with his finger ready to fire if necessary.

And he stand there, and then...

If I stand behind someone with his finger on that trigger

and he's in a fearful state and I clap my hands behind him,

in some instances a person will fire, reflexive -

in some instances not.

He focused on the timeline,

saying the shooting had most likely happened at 3:12,

but the prosecution claimed

it happened five minutes later at 3:17am.

If that timing was wrong, it weakened the state's case

about the timing of shots and screams.

Did the state prove to you

that the only reasonable inference is

that the shots were at 3:17,

and that that inference excludes all other reasonable inferences?

You have to ignore all these probabilities

and all these objective facts to do that.

And say, "Never, ever, it cannot be, it cannot be."

And that's the difficulty in the state's case.

And as to why Reeva did not respond from behind the door

to Oscar's shouts, he offered these possibilities.

She could have done two things.

She could have given her position away.

She heard him screaming "intruders in the house," and "must get out".

Or she can think "I must hide, I must keep quiet -

"I don't want them to get to me."

September 12, 2014.

193 days since the trial began.

574 days since the death of Reeva Steenkamp.

Judgment day.

South Africa does not have a jury system.

The verdict was down to presiding Judge Thokozile Masipa,

assisted by two assessors.

Mr Pistorius, please stand up.

Having regard to the totality of this evidence in this matter,

the unanimous decision of this court is the following.

On count one, murder,

the accused is found not guilty and is discharged.

Instead he is found guilty of culpable homicide.

Guilty of culpable homicide. Manslaughter.

The shooting was negligent, not deliberate.

In respect of count one,

evidence led by the state in respect of this count

was purely circumstantial.

It was not strong circumstantial evidence.

Moreover, the evidence of various witnesses,

who gave evidence on what they heard

in what sequence and when,

proved to be unreliable.

The accused denied the allegations notwithstanding that he was

an unimpressive witness.

The accused gave a version which could reasonably,

possibly be true.

In criminal law, that is all that is required for an acquittal.

The accused was clearly not candid with the court

when he said that he had no intention to shoot at anyone,

as he had a loaded firearm in his hand ready to shoot.

However, as stated above, untruthful evidence does not always justify

the conclusion that the accused is guilty.

The conduct of the accused shortly after the incident

is inconsistent with the conduct of someone

who had intention to commit murder.

He acted promptly in seeking help soon after the incident,

he shouted for help, he called a friend,

he called 911, he called security,

although he could not speak as he was crying.

He prayed to God to save the deceased's life,

he was seen trying to resuscitate the deceased,

and he pleaded with Dr Stipp to help, and he was distraught.

From the above it cannot be said that the accused did not entertain

a genuine belief that there was an intruder in the toilet

who posed a threat to him.

Therefore, he could not be found guilty of murder.

However, the accused acted negligently when he fired shots

into the toilet door, knowing that there was someone behind the door,

and that there was very little room in which to manoeuvre.

A reasonable person in the position of the accused

with similar disability

would have foreseen that possibility that whoever was behind the door

might be killed by the shots,

and would have taken steps to avoid the consequences.

Afterwards, members of the Pistorius family responded to the verdict.

We would really like to show how deep...

grateful we are for Judge Masipa,

that has found Oscar not guilty of murder.

We had never any doubt

in Oscar's version...

of this tragic incident.

We as a family remain deeply affected

by the devastating tragedy event.

And it won't bring Reeva back

but our hearts still go out for her family and friends.

Oscar Pistorius remains free on bail

until his sentencing hearing in October.

The verdict of culpable homicide could mean a prison sentence

of up to 15 years,

but the judge could decide to suspend the sentence

or impose a fine.

In their first interview after the verdict, June and Barry Steenkamp

gave their reaction.

Very disappointing.

Very, very disappointing.

It's never going to settle with us, the outcome.

They believe his story and I don't believe that story.

That's the difference.

I feel that all of this could have been prevented

right in the beginning, before the case.

I'm talking about Oscar Pistorius.

If he thought that there was somebody there...

..his balcony windows were open, he could have shouted for help,

he could have pressed an alarm, he could have done everything,

we wouldn't have had this case today.

That is why I don't believe his story.

There are so many things that he could have done

to prevent this catastrophe.

Did they still forgive him?

Yes, I don't want to carry poison in my body from that.

If you keep on about that person and going on,

you are just going to make yourself ill.

We have to get past that.

Before I give any forgiveness I want to talk to him.

Won't be anything nasty or anything like that,

but I'd like to sit down and have a talk to him.

-And I'm sure that will come about.

-It will.

He did ask to speak to us but we weren't ready for that,

quite a while ago.

You don't actually want to talk to someone

who's done that to your child.

It's not to say you will forgive after having a chat,

but I'm sure it would help.

Did they think the trial had delivered justice for Reeva?

No, definitely not.

Very, very disappointed.

And very sad, it's sad, you know?

Because you want that for Reeva, justice for her.

She died a horrible death, a horrible, painful,

terrible death and she suffered, you know?

And he...

shot through the door

and I can't believe that they believe that it was an accident.

And what of the future?

There's never going to be closure.

Especially now, with this verdict.

How can there be closure?

She's not coming back.

We just have to try and move on with our life.

I'm going to build shelters for the abused women,

raise money for that.

We're not the only ones in the world

that are going through a crisis like this, or have been through it.

But I'm sure...

that most people will understand...

what we've been through.

And I would just like to see it all come to an end now.

And for ourselves to carry on.

I wanted the truth. I don't think we got the truth,

that's the whole point. We did not get the truth.

Less than two years earlier,

the paths of two young and successful people crossed...

Hi. I'm Oscar's date tonight.

He needed a date at the last minute, so he's like,

"Reeva, just throw your stuff together and come and be my date."

..their destinies now bound together - the glamorous model

and the world's most famous disabled athlete.

Now, Oscar Pistorius must begin to live with the judge's verdict

of how he killed Reeva Steenkamp.