Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius waits prior to a hearing of his trial for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend at the high court in Pretoria on March 10, 2014/FILE
Sitting in the dock, a clearly emotional Pistorius retched and heaved as University of Pretoria pathologist Gert Saayman gave an account of the multiple bullet wounds Pistorius admits inflicting.
Pistorius says he fired four shots at Steenkamp on February 14, 2013 through a locked toilet door, believing her to be an intruder.
He denies a charge of murder.
Saayman – whose testimony the media has been banned from directly reporting – told the court how Steenkamp was struck four times with bullets from Pistorius’s nine millimetre pistol.
Steenkamp was shot once on the top right of her head, once in the right elbow and once in the right hip. She was also stuck in the webbing of her left hand.
The model and law graduate also sustained injuries from fragments of bullet, fragments of the door and fragments of her own bone.
As the details were read out, the court was forced to adjourn as Pistorius broke down, his shoulders visibly shaking.
In the public gallery Pistorius’s aunt Lois took off her glasses, closing her eyes for an extended period. His coach Ampie Louw sat still staring at Saayman, as the sound of retching continued.
Masipa earlier upheld a request from the prosecution, defence and the witness not to allow live audio broadcast of the testimony because of its graphic content.
“There shall be no live broadcast of the evidence of Professor Saayman,” Masipa ruled. “That applies to Twitter.”
Blog posts were also banned.
Professor Saayman earlier asked that his testimony not be broadcast for ethical reasons.
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