Pistorius tells how he shot Reeva

His story ... Oscar Pistorius, leaves the high court in Pretoria, South Africa. Source: AP

Oscar Pistorius on the stand detailing the hours before he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his home.

An emotional Oscar Pistorius breaks down in court while apologising to the family of Reeva Steenkamp in court. Courtesy SABC News

THE Oscar Pistorius murder trial was adjourned early when the accused became inconsolable after telling how he had shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year.

On the second day of his testimony, the double-amputee Olympian told the court that he had returned to his bedroom after firing four shots through a locked toilet door at what he thought was an intruder.

It was only when he realised she was not in the bed, or hiding in the room, that it dawned on Pistorius that it could have been Steenkamp behind the door.

Screaming for help, "like I have never screamed before" he smashed the door open with a cricket bat and found his girlfriend dead on the floor.

"I sat over Reeva and I cried," he said through tears. "I don't know how long I was there for."

Tears in the stand and in the gallery ... June Steenkamp, mother of the late Reeva Steenkamp, reacts as she listens as Oscar Pistorius breaks down during testimony in court in Pretoria. Source: AP

As Pistorius broke down sobs could be heard throughout the courtroom as members of the Steenkamp and Pistorius families wept.

Judge Thokozile Masipa called an adjournment as it became obvious Pistorius could not continue.

As the judge left the room Pistorius let out a wretched wail of desolation — as one reporter described it, "a primitive howl".

Judge Masipa returned 15 minutes later to announce proceedings had ended for the day.

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Earlier, defence advocate Barry Roux had led Pistorius through events leading up to Miss Steenkamp's death, including asking him to remove his prosthetic legs and stand in front of the toilet door which has been mounted on a frame in the courtroom.

While Mr Roux told Judge Masipa the demonstration was necessary for evidence that would be covered later in the trial it was obviously intended to graphically reinforce Pistorius's claims of feeling vulnerable as he made his way around his darkened home without his prosthesis the night of the shooting.

Emotional ... Oscar Pistorius' sister Aimee, left, attends his murder trial. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

Pistorius told how prior to the shooting he had woken after a few hours sleep and noticed that Miss Steenkamp had not locked the sliding doors that opened onto a balcony from his bedroom.

He spoke briefly to Miss Steenkamp who asked him, "Can't you sleep Baba?".

He then got out of bed and walked on his stumps to lock the doors and pull the curtains. As he returned to bed in the "pitch black" he heard the noise of the window opening in the bathroom.

"That's when everything changed," he said directly to the judge.

"I thought a burglar had broken into my home. I froze, I didn't know what to do. My immediate thought was that the person or persons could be on us at any moment.

"I needed to put myself between the intruder and Reeva. I needed to get my gun."

Speaking haltingly and taking breaks to regain composure, Pistorius said he worked his way back to the bed, reached around underneath it to where he kept his pistol, and pulled it out of its canvas holster.

Grief ... Family members of Oscar Pistorius, including his uncle Arnold Pistorius, right, cry as they listen to his testimony in court. Picture: AFP Source: AP

"Just before I left the bed I whispered to Reeva to get down and call the police," he said.

"As I entered the passage to where the bathroom is, it was at that point I became overcome with fear. I screamed at the burglar or intruders to get out of my house. I screamed at Reeva to get on the floor and call the police.

"I made my way down the passage constantly aware that this threat, these people or persons, could come at me at any time. I didn't have my legs on.

"Just before I got to the bathroom I stopped shouting because I knew that it would let these people know where I was and when I put my head around the corner I could be shot.

"Then I heard the toilet door slam and that confirmed to me that people were in the bathroom."

Pistorius told how he made his way into the bathroom and leaned against the wall to keep his balance, not knowing if intruders were waiting in the darkness, whether someone standing on a ladder outside the open window would fire on him, or whether a gunman was about to burst out from behind the locked door.

Shot dead ... Oscar Pistorius broke down while testifying about the moment he killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, in what he says was a tragic mistake. Picture: AP Source: AP

"I saw the door closed, the window open. When I saw no-one waiting to attack me I stayed where I was and kept screaming. Then I heard a noise that I perceived as someone coming out from the toilet and before I knew it I had fired four shots into the door.

"I was screaming for Reeva to call the police. My ears were ringing, I didn't know if there was any response. It hadn't occurred to me that it could have been Reeva behind the door."

Pistorius said as he returned to the bedroom and began looking for Miss Steenkamp he continued to point his gun towards the bathroom, still fearing attack.

"It was at that point that it first dawned on me that it could be Reeva.

"I climbed up onto the bed, looked on the floor next to it and ran my hand behind the curtain thinking she might have been hiding there. Then I went back and tried to open the toilet door but of course it was locked."

Pistorius said it was then that he went out on the balcony screaming for help. He put on his prosthetic legs and ran back to the bathroom, launching himself at the door.

"It didn't budge so I tried to kick it open. I was screaming. I don't think I've screamed or shouted like that in my life. I was screaming for the Lord, screaming for Reeva."

Pistorius used a cricket bat that he propped against his locked bedroom door as added security every night to smash open the toilet door.

It was as he recounted finding his girlfriend lying dead on the floor, and sitting with her body, the Pistorius became incoherent with emotion and the trial was halted for the day.

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Earlier, Pistorius described how he met the vivacious law graduate and how they quickly grew closer. He said they had begun to plan a future together.

"The first six days we knew each other we called each other every day," he said. "I was very keen on Reeva," he said. "We started really seeing a future with each other."

He also said, however, that he believed that, "if anything I was more into her, than she was at times with me".

Steenkamp's mother, June, attended Tuesday's hearing along with Steenkamp's friend, Gina Myers, who was wearing tags that bore a black-and-white print of the model.

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