Pistorius witness tells how she still relives screams before gunshots

The first witness in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial has broken down in tears, saying she still remembers the terrified screams of a woman on the night the double-amputee Olympic athlete killed his girlfriend by shooting four times through a toilet door.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Mar 2014, 17:37 BST

Michelle Burger, who lives near Pistorius’s home and who had been composed through two days of gruelling cross-examination at the high court in Pretoria, wept as she finished giving evidence.

Earlier the trial was interrupted and the judge ordered an investigation into allegations that a South African TV channel was broadcasting a photograph of Ms Burger – against a court order guaranteeing privacy to witnesses who request it.

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Prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked Ms Burger about her emotions at the time when she made her statement to police. “It was quite raw,” she said, her voice breaking.

“When I’m in the shower, I relive her shouts,” Ms Burger said of hearing the woman screaming before the sound of gunshots in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day last year. Ms Burger lives about 193 yards (177m) from Pistorius’s house.

Ms Burger’s testimony about events on the night of February 14, 2013, contradicts the Olympian’s story. Pistorius says he shot four times through a toilet door, hitting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp three times in the head, arm and hip or side area after thinking she was a dangerous intruder. He has pleaded not guilty to murder denying he intentionally killed Ms Steenkamp.

The trial continues.