Why did you hand Oscar a loaded gun? asks Roux

Oscar Pistorius's lawyer asked a State witness why he did not tell the paralympic athlete that there was a magazine in the gun he had passed to him in a crowded restaurant, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Tuesday (11/03/2014).

"Being someone I thought is competent with a weapon I thought he would have checked if the magazine was still in the weapon," Darren Fresco said while being cross-examined by Barry Roux.

Pistorius sat in the dock, facing Fresco, at times taking notes. A bright green bucket was at his feet. He vomited in court on Monday.

As Roux circled the question of the magazine, Fresco repeated his statement three times.

At one point Fresco asked Roux: "Why would I walk around with a gun with no magazine in it?"

Roux put it to Fresco that Pistorius was upset because Fresco failed to tell him there was a magazine in the gun.

"If the roles were reversed I would have checked to make sure the magazine was in," Fresco said.

Fresco handed Pistorius his Glock pistol under a table at Tasha's restaurant in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, in 2013. Moments after Pistorius took it, a shot went off.

The bullet went into the tiled floor under the table.

Fresco risks prosecution on ammunition and firearms-related charges. Judge Thokozile Masipa, however, told him earlier that if he answered questions put to him by the defence or prosecution frankly and honestly, he would be discharged from prosecution.

Pistorius is accused of the murder of model and law graduate Steenkamp on February 14 last year.

He is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and two counts of discharging a firearm in public. - Sapa