11:58 am
And with that we are adjourned for lunch.

The court rises and the judge leaves.

11:58 am
Pistorius talking about his prosthetic legs now.

He says he always has them close by.

He doesn't like being without them.

11:57 am
Pistorius was in an induced coma for several days.

He says the accident had a "massive impact" on him.

He says he became more fearful for his life. He wanted to take his sport more seriously.

He had a "terrible season". His jaw had been wired shut for four or five weeks. He had lost a lot of muscle. He had about 170 stitches in his face.

"By the time I got to Europe I wasn't fit," he says.

11:53 am
Pistorius recalls how the boat sank.

He suffered bad facial injuries by the sounds of it.

11:50 am
Pistorius talking about a boating accident he had in 2009.

He was injured.

Judge Masipa and her assessors have stopped taking notes and are just listening.

11:49 am
Pistorius talking about how his fame and lifestyle started to affect friendships.

He says it was hard to come back after five or six months and see people.

"It changed a lot of friendships that I had," he says.

11:47 am
Pistorius talking about his dealings with charities.

He works with a charity in Mozambique.

He says he wanted to show people with disabilities that they could still lead a normal life.

11:43 am
Pistorius says he is on prosthetics most of the time.

11:38 am
Pistorius talking about the dispute over whether he should be allowed to compete alongside able-bodied athletes.

He said he was subjected to "a lot of testing".

Scientists eventually found that he didn't have an advantage.

He took his findings to the court of arbitration for sport in 2008. But by then he didn't have much time to make the qualifying time.

He didn't make the Beijing Olympics which was "devastating".

11:33 am
Pistorius talking about how he became a professional athlete.

He talks about how at first there wasn't much money in Paralympic sport.

He eventually moved into running able-bodied races.

11:30 am
Pistorius says his mother's death was unexpected.

He says him and his brother didn't even know she was sick because they were away at boarding school.

11:28 am
Pistorius talking about how he got into running and being part of the Paralympics.

Then moving on to when his mother died.

Pistorius says she was a "very important person to us".

11:26 am
Gentle stuff at the moment for Pistorius.

It will get a lot uglier later on.

11:25 am
Pistorius talking about high school now.

Says he had a mixed group of friends, many of whom he still speaks to today.

Some were very gifted academically.

"I was seen as one of the boys I guess," he says.

He says he tried rugby and water polo and then moved over to athletics.

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

LUNCH

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

1:09 pm
Pistorius being asked about drugs and alcohol.

Says he drinks alcohol in the off-season but not when training.

Says he never uses drugs.

1:07 pm
Pistorius being asked about this habit.

He is saying that he's a bit embarrassed by them when he takes them off.

1:05 pm
We're back underway in Pretoria.

Pistorius is being asked by Roux about him always using something to cover his prosthetic legs.

Not sure the relevance of this just yet.

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

1:21 pm
Pistorius talking about a violent incident when he saw a taxi driver being attacked.

1:15 pm
Pistorius says he has been followed home several times and at one time shot at on a highway.

1:12 pm
Pistorius says his home was broken into in 2005.

He was at an athletics event in Manchester at the time.

His TV and laptop were stolen. His car's roof had been cut with a knife.

1:11 pm
Pistorius being asked about crime.

"I think everybody in South Africa has been exposed to crime at some point," he says.

Recalls break-ins at his parent's homes.

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

1:41 pm
Pistorius saying he is "very tired" and did not sleep last night.

"The weight of this is extremely overbearing," he adds.

Roux says he was asked by Pistorius if we could adjourn early because he is exhausted.

The judge agrees, as does Gerrie Nel "as long as it is not a daily occurrence".

We are done for today.

1:39 pm
Pistorius now saying that Reeva was a "strong Christian".

He says she would pray for him, for his training and "every little thing".

They would pray together before eating.

"There's times in this last year I've been struggling a lot. My God is my God of refuge."

1:32 pm
Pistorius talking about buying security dogs to guard his home.

He had a bull terrier, pit bull and a jack russell.

1:29 pm
Pistorius talked about relationship with Reeva briefly.

He describes being "taken aback" by how bowled over by her he was.

This was in reference to him looking to buy a house in Johannesburg.

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

Roux requested an early adjournment... Op exhausted... Judge clearly was OK with it.

Nel could not help himself and agreed begrudgingly.... "provided it'd not a daily occurrence"

He again looked VERY petty and petulant!

Judge said CLEARLY Mr Pistorious appears exhausted... so at least she has some common human compassion.


I think Nel's handlers have told him to up his game... but he has not got it right at all... he is coming across as a nasty little man.

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

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

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

The State vs Oscar Pretorius (Murder 1)



Trial Day 18

Start 9:30 AM Tuesday (4-08-14)

9:00AM J/Burg ----> 3:00AM ET ----> 2:00AM CT ---->1:00AM MT ---->12:00AM PT
(Times amended to include US clocks moved one hour forward)





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

Live Blog - Daily Mirror

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news ... es-3387093

8:44 am
The messages is being directed to talk about Reeva and cars.

He said: "We had a common interest in motor vehicles." He said she drove a sports car.

8:42 am
Defence advocate Roux turns to WhatsApp messages.

There's a short delay while the files are passed to Pistorius.

8:40 am
He was supposed to go to Brazil in March and he asked her to go with her.

In mid-January they were also looking at interior decorating items together for a new home he was buying in Johannesburg.

He's asked to speak up as he verges on tears again.

8:39 am
In mid-January their relationship started to pick up.

"That's when I would say our relationship really got going", he tells the court.

He said they had both come out of difficult relationships.

"I was very keen on Reeva, I think if anything I was maybe more into her than she was at times with me. And I let her just take her space. I was just besotted with her."

8:37 am
The trial is now underway.

Pistorius says that for the first six days after they met they saw each other every day.

They met at a sports award and he says they had the most amazing time together afterwards.

He spent Christmas with her and friends.

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

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

8:50 am
Speaking about her writing: "I'm watching the ceremony now".

She was watching the opening ceremony of the CAF cup where Pistorius was carrying a flame.

He carried the flame to president Jacob Zuma.

8:48 am
On January 19 2013 Reeva sent a message to him.

Pistorius responds to Reeva's message saying: "I wasn't a stripper or a ho."

He said it was in context of her coming back from an overseas trip. He said she was defensive and thinking he was over-reacting.

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

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

8:53 am
He says he asked her if she wanted to go to a friend's 50th birthday party but there had been some unhappiness but it was resolved and the subject was changed.

Pistorius is reading a long message from Reeva - he broke down in tears a couple of times.

Here is the text in full:

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

8:57 am
Reeva was speaking to someone and she didn't introduce Pistorius to them.

So he walked away and admits that he felt sensitive.

"I wasn't kind to her like I should have been."

He said he had to go to training after the engagement. He said she was short to her and he didn't talk to her for the rest of the weekend until the long message came through.

8:55 am
Explaining the background he said that they were at Darren Fresco's engagement party.

He said "We were in a bad day in our relationship".

One of Reeva's friends was late, making them late. He was fetching something for Mr Fresco.

He said they had a good morning and he needed to get food to comply with his strict diet.

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

9:04 am
He said that a message just saying "baby" from Reeva was probably to let him know she was thinking about him or to start a conversation and that the unhappiness was over.

9:01 am
He then sent a message with three kisses.

Reeva sent a reply with five kisses to him soon after.

8:59 am
Pistorius tried calling her but she didn't answer.

So he started typing this message:

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

9:09 am
Now they turn to this message from Reeva to Pistorius:


9:07 am
Nel stands up to say that he is confused because he doesn't see a message that says the argument is over.

Roux said the term 'baby' and kisses show that they have cleared the air.

The judge agrees.

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

9:12 am
He said that he called her later that evening.

He added that he doesn't like to text and says emotions don't get portrayed the right way through text message.

He says he apologised and they sorted out the argument they had. She wouldn't always want to speak, he said, saying she had been in an abusive relationship so preferred to message.

9:11 am
He said that the last message was about another event that they attended. They were sitting at the front of a hall and he asked her if they could just walk straight to the exit and he just wanted to get home so he was ready for training the next morning.

As soon as they left the table she stopped to talk to friends and they ended up leaving 15 minutes later.

They started arguing on the way to the car. A friend of his and his girlfriend were the only people that might have heard them.

He told her in the car that he had an extremely hard training session the next morning.

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

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

9:21 am
Reeva said she would help with the houses "new and old".

He said he didn't have much time to deal with the building contractors.

9:20 am
She said "I'm here next to you"

Pistorius clarifies that she wasn't physically next to him and it was just a reassurance. He replied to say he was under a lot of pressure.

"I was dealing with a lot of things. Both pressure from the media side and pressure from my training side."

He was also dealing with financial pressure because of buying a new home.

9:18 am
She said she was going for a run but he said it wasn't safe or smart.

He says he didn't think it would be a good idea for her to go.

He said "Please let me know you're safe."

Roux asks why he wanted to know if she was safe. He said: "Because I care about her."

9:16 am
There was another exchange that was general chat between them swapping pleasantries.

She also sent him some loving messages and he replied with "a bunch of kisses"

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