Oscar Pistorius trial day 20

Oscar's version not true: State 

The version of events by murder-accused Oscar Pistorius the night his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead is improbable, the State said on Thursday.

"Your version is so improbable that nobody would think it is reasonably or possibly true," prosecutor Gerrie Nel said during Pistorius's murder trial in the High Court in Pretoria.

Nel said Pistorius would not be able to convince people that his version was true.

Pistorius has been charged with deliberately killing Steenkamp. She was shot through the locked toilet door of his Pretoria home on February 14 last year.

He says he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder.

Pistorius has pleaded not guilty and denied in his plea statement that he had argued with her shortly before the shooting.

On Thursday, Nel said: "Let's just sum this up. A policeman moved two fans, put the duvet on the floor and opened the curtains wider than it should be?"

Pistorius responded: "That is correct, My Lady."

Nel showed Pistorius photographs the police took after Steenkamp was shot and asked him to identify items he thought were moved.

Pistorius said the duvet was not on the floor, the curtains were not opened as wide as shown in the picture and he said the fans were moved.

Nel asked why a policeman would move the items and asked if there was a conspiracy against him. Pistorius replied: "I'm not sure, My Lady."

Nel said if the fans were where Pistorius said they were supposed to be it would not be possible for them to be plugged in.

The athlete disagreed.

The court was adjourned to Friday.

Oscar asked about illegal ammunition 

Nel: I am dealing with your negligence as a firearm owner.

— The Herald PE (@HeraldPE)

Paralympian Oscar Pistorius's father asked him if he could put ammunition in his safe despite the two not having spoken for many years, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Thursday.

His father put the .38 ammunition in his safe while he was not at home, Pistorius told prosecutor Gerrie Nel during cross-examination. He could not remember when he did this.

Nel told Pistorius his father had refused to make a statement in the case.

"My father and I haven't had communication between the two of us for many years," he replied.

Later however he said:

"He asked if he could keep the ammunition in the safe."

Pistorius then mentioned his lawyer Barry Roux, suggesting he had told the athlete it was permissible to keep somebody else's ammunition in his own safe without a licence.

"Are you telling me that Mr Roux told you were allowed to keep your father's ammunition in your safe if you're not a licence holder for .38 ammunition?"

A smiling Nel took off his glasses and looked over at Roux, who was sitting and looking down.

"I said to him (Roux) it was my understanding," Pistorius replied.

"Mr Roux would not have done it, I put it to you," Nel replied, raising his voice.

"He would have said no because it's illegal."

He pointed out it was the third time Pistorius had blamed his legal team for something.

"You are a gun enthusiast. You come from a family with lots of guns, 50 or more I read somewhere. If you are a gun enthusiast you would know the law. I don't understand why you plead not guilty. You just don't take responsibility," Nel told him.

Pistorius allegedly fired his friend Darren Fresco's Glock pistol under a table at Tasha's, in Johannesburg, in January 2013.

He also allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012.

He 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, saying later he thought she was an intruder. She was struck in the hip, arm and head.

It is all about Oscar

trying to portray as a selfish individual in his relationship with Reeva Steenkamp.

— The Herald PE (@HeraldPE)

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel sought to portray paralympian Oscar Pistorius as a selfish individual in his relationship with Reeva Steenkamp, in the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.

"Thank you Mr Pistorius I've now got three I's. I had training. I had to go to lunch. I had plans," Nel told Pistorius during his cross-examination of the murder accused.

He was analysing a WhatsApp message Steenkamp sent to Pistorius in early 2013 after the couple had attend the engagement party of their mutual friend Darren Fresco.

In her message she mentions that he accused her of flirting with someone else, and said he "made a scene at the table".

Pistorius said he had to leave the party early as he had training the next day.

"She knew that I had training... I didn't know that she wanted to stay longer," Pistorius said.

Nel replied: "It's all about I. It's all about Mr Pistorius."

Oscar's apology questioned

Nel: why did you create a spectacle and only apologise in the public eye. Why have you not apologised to them in private?

— The Herald PE (@HeraldPE)

Murder accused Oscar Pistorius told the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday he was "terribly sorry" that he killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel read out an extract of Pistorius's apology to the Steenkamp family from Monday and said: "The words 'I'm sorry I killed your daughter' were never in your apology."

Breaking down, Pistorius said: "I'm terribly sorry that I took the life of their daughter."

Nel responded: "Now you say it."

Nel demanded to know why he had not apologised privately, choosing instead to make them listen to it in a full court room with proceedings being televised globally.

"You didn't think how they would feel sitting in a public court," asked Nel.

"I'm not sure it was appropriate My Lady, but that's what I thought that was best," said Pistorius.

He added: "I don't think they would ever want to meet me. I completely understand where they are coming from."

Nel's theme was that in their short relationship, all attention was on Pistorius's needs as an international gold medal winning paralympic and Olympic athlete.

"Life is just about you, what's important to Oscar," said Nel.

Steenkamp's mother June was in court with her lawyer Dup du Bruyn, a friend, and Steenkamp's cousin. Thursday was day 20 in his murder trial and his fourth day on the witness stand.

- SAPA