Nel picks through crime scene photos

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel continued his painstaking examination of photos of the bathroom where Reeva Steenkamp was killed, during Oscar Pistorius's trial on Monday (17/03/2014).

A black fragment on the tiled floor and two spent cartridge cases near the bathtub were among the details Nel focused on as he quizzed a police photographer.

Warrant Officer Barend van Staden's photos were displayed on screens in court GD in the High Court in Pretoria.

Pistorius is accused of the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Steenkamp. He shot and killed her through the closed door of his toilet, apparently believing she was an intruder.

Nel flipped back and forth through the photos, reading out their numbers, while Van Staden recited the times he took them.

Photo 102, taken at 6.19am on February 14 last year, shows a black fragment on the floor. Nel did not ask what this was or where it may have come from.

Other photos show a bloodied towel, the cricket bat Pistorius used to bash open the toilet door, his gun, the wooden panels of the door, and a cellphone found under the towel.

"Did you handle the bat? Why did you pick up the towel? What happened to the towel? What happened to the cellphones?" were some of the questions Nel peppered Van Staden with.

Van Staden said he compiled 15 different albums of the scene.

Van Staden is attached to the photography section of the Local Criminal Record Centre. He had been with the centre for 12 years, and in the police for 21.

In addition to the murder charge, Pistorius is charged with contraventions of the Firearms Control Act. He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.

On September 30, 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein. - Sapa