Nel "we will get to that"

DRINK

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Nel "I'll deal with that"

Drink

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

9:55 am
The accused failed to demonstrate the crime scene was disturbed or tampered with, Nel says.

He says police would have to have been "lucky or clever" to put objects in places that would effect a defence they didn't know about.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Nel pulls up gown hunches shoulders.. '

DRINK

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

10:11 am
Nel says inconsistencies in Pistorius' version of events turned it into a "farce".

He is going over evidence about the position of fans in the athlete's bedroom the night Reeva was shot.

He repeats that the accused "tailored his version".

10:05 am
Nel has been going back over when he asked Pistorius if he knew what a "zombie stopper" was.

Pistorius initially said he did not, but news footage showed him using the term at a firing range.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

H/T Nettles... Nel in action

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Tea Break

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Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

10:29 am

The trial has been adjourned for a short tea break.

Both Pistorius and Reeva's fathers have been in court to watch proceedings for the first time today.

Barry Steenkamp joined Reeva's mum June at the High Court in Pretoria.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

10:46 am
Nel's closing speech is based around 13 inconsistencies he claims the prosecution found in the Blade Runner's case - what he is calling a "baker's dozen".

Referring to changes to Pistorius' version of events about where he saw Reeva in the bed, Nel says: "All these lies caught him up... so many lies in such a short period that the snowball effect became so evident. You tell one lie, and you have to continuously build on it and build on it and it becomes ridiculous."

10:39 am
Nel is now dealing with "the inability of the accused" to explain why police would have moved fans and other objects around the bedroom.

He says this would show "astounding foresight" by the police, when they did not know what the accused's version of events would be.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

11:11 am
"The mere fact [the person behind the door] later turned out to be Reeva and not an intruder is of no consequence," Nel says.

The lawyer says that to consider the accused's defence, the court will need to accept Reeva left the bed without speaking to Pistorius.

Then for "no apparent reason" she opened the bathroom window.

He goes on: "Why would she take her cell phone with her?"

"She is with the accused... she didn't have to talk to the accused, WhatsApp the accused."

"Then, he's standing in front of her in the bathroom shouting her name - she is in the toilet cubicle and did not utter a word."

"All of these things the court will have to accept before it accepts the accused's version of events."

11:06 am
Nel now talking about Pistorius' claim he was acting in self-defence.

Objectively there was not an "imminent attack", he says.

The lawyer says Pistorius armed himself, approached the danger, and fired through the door.

Nel adds: "Even on his own version, he stood in front of the door... and fired shots with intention to kill"

"The intention was to shoot a person in that bathroom."

10:57 am
When Pistorius was confronted about police supposedly moving objects, "his real attitude came to the fore, says Nel.

He goes on to say that it is "inconceivable" the accused would not have mentioned that he spoke to Reeva before getting up in his bail application.

He moves on to talk about Pistorius de-activating the alarm.

"You just shot your girlfriend", says Nel, so these actions either show "he did not panic" or the alarm was never on because the couple were awake.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

11:41 am
Nel has heavily criticised various defence witnesses this morning.

He said some gave testimony which was among the worse he had ever seen in the high court.

11:34 am
The prosecutor moves on to talk about the screaming heard by neighbours.

The accused claims he screamed while breaking down the door, and then sees Reeva in a pool of blood and stops screaming.

Nel says: "Normal human behaviour would dictate if you see you loved one lying in a pool of blood and you've caused it... you would scream more than ever."

11:26 am
Nel says that Pistorius' evidence that he heard the magazine rack being moved in the bathroom is, again, "improbable".

Defence witnesses even contradicted him on this.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

12:00 pm
Nel says the state witnesses were not perfect, but they held up "brilliantly" when questioned in minute detail.

The court adjourns for a half an hour lunch break.

11:56 am
"They came to court with no other intention than to tell the truth," Nel says of the state witnesses.

The defence version that the accused can scream like a woman and the cricket bat sounds like a gunshot remains unproven, which strengthens the account of the state's witnesses.

11:55 am
Nel is now talking about the credibility of the state's witnesses.

He says they are all independent.

There is no indication they knew each other before they made their statements to police.

He says the level of corroboration is "amazing".

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

LUNCH








HALF HOUR ONLY- Due back 1:30pm (local)

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

12:30 pm
Today is the first time we have seen Pistorius' father Henke in court since the start of his five month trial.

He sat through most of this morning's hearing, during which prosecutor Gerrie Nel branded his son an "appalling" witness who had become caught in a "snowball" of lies.

The session is resuming after the lunch break.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

1:04 pm
Estelle van Der Merwe says she woke up at 1.56am on February 14 2013 because she heard a woman's voice she thought was involved in an argument.

Pistorius claims he and Reeva were asleep at this time.

He goes on to talk about Professor Saayman's evidence, that Reeva had eaten two hours or less than her death.

This supports the suggestion it was Reeva that was heard arguing at 1.56am.

12:57 pm
He says screaming was heard before the second set of sounds at 3.17am - what the prosecution says were gun shots that killed Reeva.

They were "petrified and bloodcurdling screams", he says, but there were no sounds after the gun shots.

Pistorius claimed he screamed at the perceived intruder to get out before firing, but nothing was heard before the first sounds - which the defence claim were the gun shots.

12:49 pm
Nel talks about neighbour Mrs Stipp's evidence that she saw the toilet light on in Pistorius' house.

If the court accepts this, it confirms the prosecution state that Oscar and Reeva did not go to bed.

He said: "Nobody went to bed in that house. No one was sleeping... The alarm wasn't activated and that light was on."

12:35 pm
Nel returns to neighbours' evidence.

One neighbour said there was a pause between the first and second shot.

He says the second shot did not hit Reeva, corroborating the neighbour's evidence. He suggests if those shots had been "rapid fire" they would both have hit the deceased.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

1:35 pm
Pistorius denies the charge on the basis he did not discharge the gun - it went off in his possession.

But the court heard evidence the firearm cannot be discharges unless the trigger is pulled.

1:34 pm
Nel now dealing with the firearms charges.

He says count three - where he is accused of discharging a gun in a restaurant - shows the accused's "inability to take responsibility for his actions" and his "habit of hiding behind the phrase 'I can't remember'."

1:28 pm
He says the accused's version is that they were a loving couple "who spent a quiet evening together on the eve of Valentine's Day without even a suggestion of intimacy".

1:26 pm
The judge asks what inferences can really be made from these WhatsApps.

But Nel says they weren't a couple without problems, and "this relationship ended in death".

1:24 pm
We move on to a WhatsApp message sent on January 27.

It read: "I am scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me and how you will react to me."

She also said they could not make each other happy and she was very unhappy.

The defence will argue about their "brilliant relationship", but a message on February 7 says she is unhappy, says Nel.

Seven days later she was dead.

1:18 pm
He moves on to talk about Reeva and Pistorius' relationship.

He acknowledges that 90% of the WhatsApp messages between the couple are loving, "but it's the 10% that count".

He adds it's the timing of the messages that count - just weeks before Reeva's death.

1:17 pm
He argues Reeva ate sometime between 1am and 3.17am on the morning of February 14 2013.

This "destroys the accused's version of a loving couple going to bed at 10pm", he adds.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

1:46 pm
Nel moves on to his conclusion.

He argues if the court imagines the accused started a race with a baton, "the baton of truth is not with him".

"He stumbled and fell... he can only blame himself".

He says that if the court rejects the accused's version of events, and relies on objective facts and circumstantial evidence, a conviction on murder is "inevitable".

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

1:50 pm
But, Nel adds, even if the court accepts Pistorius' version of events the he thought there was an intruder in the toilet, he still cannot escape a conviction of murder.

There was no imminent attack on him; the accused armed himself and approached the danger; he then fired four shots after "realising that the intruder was in the toilet".

"The accused intended to kill a human being," says Nel. "His intention when he fired those shots was to kill a human being."

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

1:56 pm
If the court accepts that he acted in self defence, the accused cannot escape a conviction of culpable homicide, continues Nel.

Whether he was disabled or not, he was armed and had his firearm pointed towards the door, says the prosecution.

He says any reasonable person would not have fired without cause - if the door had opened, for example.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

2:00 pm
Nel says the following actions demonstrated pre-planning by Pistorius:

Pistorius remembering where his gun was; finding it; un-holstering it; getting the gun ready to fire; walking more than 5 metres; took up a position; and fired four shots into the cubicle.

It was "not spur of the moment... there was plenty of time for reflection."

"That is pre-planning," he says.

And Nel concludes his closing argument.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light