Pistorius’s ‘sinister’ remark to Reeva’s pal

Oscar Pistorius was accused of making a "sinister" comment to a friend of Reeva Steenkamp in the courtroom yesterday after his murder trial was adjourned for the day.

Pistorius denied the allegation.

A lawyer for Kim Myers, who was close to Steenkamp, said Pistorius approached Myers in the Pretoria courtroom and said to her, “how can you sleep at night?”

Lawyer Ian Levitt told the AP that Myers said Pistorius made the remark in a “very sinister way”.

Steenkamp, whom Pistorius shot and killed last year, lived with the Myers family and they say they were her second family.

“My client views this unwelcome approach as extremely disturbing and I have been in communication with the national prosecuting authorities,” Levitt said, adding that Myers was “shocked” and did not know what the remark referred to.

“It’s important to confirm this. It was in front of witnesses. Journalists have witnessed this,” Levitt said. A reporter also alleges that he overheard the double-amputee Olympian making the comment to Myers.

Members of the Myers family have been present for much of Pistorius’s murder trial, sitting on a wooden bench reserved for friends and family just feet away from Pistorius.

Pistorius told reporters in the courtroom that he did not make the comment and hadn’t spoken to members of the Myers family for weeks. His lawyer, Brian Webber, said Pistorius also told him that the allegation was untrue.

“I’ve asked the client and he denies that he said it,” Webber said.

Pistorius is charged with premeditated murder for shooting Steenkamp through a toilet cubicle door on February 14, 2013. He pleaded not guilty and says he shot his girlfriend by mistake after thinking she was an intruder in his home. Prosecutors say they fought before the famed athlete killed her intentionally.

Earlier yesterday, a neighbour of Pistorius told the trial about the night of the killing, saying he heard a man crying loudly and that he called the security of the housing estate for help.

Michael Nhlengethwa, who was called by the defence team, told the court his wife woke him up after hearing a bang and that he did not hear gunshots. He said he heard a man crying in a high-pitched voice that indicated he needed help urgently.

The witness said he could not make out most of what the man was saying, although he heard the words: “No, please, please, no.”

The neighbour’s bedroom window was around 25m from the balcony doors of Pistorius’s bedroom, closer than neighbours called by prosecutors and who said they heard a woman screaming on the night.

The defence was trying to present Nhlengethwa as a more reliable witness because of how much closer he lived to Pistorius’s villa.