The prosecutor in Oscar Pistorius' murder trial on Wednesday told the athlete to "take responsibility" for killing Reeva Steenkamp, while ordering him to look at a photo of the dead woman's bloodied head.
"It's time that you look at it," lead prosecutor Gerrie Nel said during his first cross-examination of Pistorius on the 19th day of his trial on premeditated murder charges.
Nel said Steenkamp's head "exploded" when it was struck by one of four hollow-point bullets the double-amputee runner fired through a closed bathroom door in his home on Valentine's Day last year.
The police photo showed a side view of Steenkamp's head, with a mass of blood and human tissue on the back and upper parts, and her eyes closed.
"I remember," Pistorius said, becoming distraught and turning away from where the photo was shown on a TV screen in court. "I don't have to look at a picture. I was there."
Steenkamp's modeling portfolio from Ice Model Management in Johannesburg.Photo: AP
Nel opened his aggressive cross-examination by demanding that Pistorius say he killed his 29-year-old girlfriend.
"What was your mistake?" Nel shot back.
Pistorius then said he "took Reeva's life."
"You killed her," Nel said. "You shot and killed her," and he asked Pistorius to say those words.
Pistorius would not, replying only, "I did."
The prosecutor then showed a video of the celebrated Olympic athlete firing a gun at a watermelon and referring to its deadly power as a "zombie stopper."
Defense lawyer Barry Roux had earlier objected to the gun video being shown, saying it was inadmissible character evidence and amounted to a legal "ambush" of the defense.
Judge Thokozile Masipa allowed the video to be shown.
Comparing the video of Pistorius shooting the powerful .50-caliber handgun at a watermelon, which explodes, Nel said, "You know the same happened to Reeva's head? It exploded."
State prosecutor Gerrie NelPhoto: Getty Images
Pistorius, 27, his voice rising and starting to sob, said he was at the scene when Steenkamp died and knew of her horrific head injury, saying he had touched her brain tissue as he tried to help her.
Pistorius's sister Aimee cries during his cross examination Wednesday.Photo: EPA
The "Blade Runner" – who had removed his prosthetic legs in court Tuesday in an attempt to show how vulnerable he was without them – has claimed that he shot his model girlfriend by accident after mistaking her for an intruder.
Pistorius's aunt and uncle Arnold and Lois Pistorius.Photo: Getty Images
The prosecution has argued he killed her in a fit of rage after an argument turned violent and she had locked herself in the bathroom in fear. He faces a possible prison term of 25 years to life if convicted of premeditated murder.
Steenkamp's mother, June, is comforted by the family lawyer Dup de Bruyn.Photo: AP
The dramatic cross-examination caused Pistorius to once again break down, and the judge called another recess to allow him to compose himself.
Nel also started to poke holes in details of Pistorius' version of the events of the fatal night.
The Olympic sprinter conceded that his claim in a statement a year ago that he went out onto a balcony at his home before the shooting was incorrect.
Pistorius admitted he went to the edge of the balcony but not outside.
And Nel tried to dismantle the sympathetic image of Pistorius that the defense had sought to build up in three days of testimony.
Nel tried to drive a wedge between the rosy former image of Pistorius and the ideals the runner has said he aspires to, and the prosecution depiction of the runner as a hothead with a gun obsession.
The prosecutor asked Pistorius if people looked up to him as a sporting hero, if he wouldn't hide anything and if he lived by Christian principles.
"I'm here to tell the truth, I'm here to tell the truth as much as I can remember," Pistorius said. He also said: "I'm human. I have sins."
Pistorius also described what he said were the last moments of his girlfriend's life and how he dragged her, bleeding and "struggling to breathe" out of a toilet and downstairs to get help after blasting her in the head, arm and hip.
Steenkamp and Pistorius January, 2013.Photo: Getty Images
He said she died in his arms before paramedics arrived at his house.
"Reeva had died while I was holding her," Pistorius said, telling how he put his fingers in her mouth to try to help her breathe and put his hand on her hip to try to stop bleeding from one of several gunshot wounds.
Earlier, Pistorius had kicked at and swung a bat at the bullet-marked toilet door, which had been placed in the courtroom as evidence.
It was a re-enactment of parts of the night when he killed Steenkamp.
He said he tried to kick the door down with his prosthetic legs and then bashed it with a cricket bat, an attempt to show he had tried to help Steenkamp.
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