Pistorius tells of love with Reeva

South African Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius reacts during his trial at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on April 15, 2014. The prosecution concluded its gruelling cross-examination of Pistorius, ending five days of intense and emotional interrogation in his murder trial. AFP/PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Legal teams for both prosecution and defence call for case to be put off for two weeks starting on Friday.
  • Prosecutors say he shot the model and aspiring TV actress in a fit of rage after the two had a row.

PRETORIA,

Oscar Pistorius’s girlfriend said she loved him in a Valentine’s Day card on the day she died, his murder trial heard Tuesday as the sprinter’s gruelling cross-examination ended.

The Paralympian read out in court the words in a card Reeva Steenkamp would have given him with a gift on February 14 last year, the day he fired four shots through a locked toilet door that killed her.

“She said ‘I think today is a good day to tell you that I love you,’” the 27-year-old double amputee sprinter read from the card.

“The envelope says ‘Ozzie’, with some hearts and a squiggle, and it says on the front of the card: ‘roses are red, violets are blue,’” he said, his voice growing faint after five days of gruelling cross-examination.

FIT OF RAGE

Prosecutors have charged Pistorius with the 29-year-old’s premeditated murder, saying he shot her in a fit of rage after the couple had a row.

The model and aspiring TV actress had told the sprinter she sometimes was afraid of him during an exchange on the messaging service WhatsApp.

But his defence lawyers have insisted the pair were in love, citing numerous caring messages between the two and showing the court CCTV footage of the two flirting in a grocery store days before the shooting.

Pistorius says he fired at the closed toilet door in his home in the dead of night after he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder.

Earlier, legal teams for the prosecution and the defence both called for a two-eek adjournment beginning on Friday. Judge Thokozile Masipa said she would consider the request
and rule on Wednesday.