Oscar: Witness recalls shouts
Updated | By Lonwabo Miso
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius's murder trial began in dramatic fashion on Monday with the testimony of a neighbour who heard a woman's "blood-curdling" screams coming from his house the night he shot Reeva Steenkamp.

A year after the shooting, a sombre Pistorius stood in the dock in the high court in Pretoria to answer to prosecutor Gerrie Nel's charge of premeditated murder.
As expected, the Olympic gold medalist denied guilt and insisted that he had mistakenly believed he was firing at an intruder hiding in his Pretoria home when he shot and killed Steenkamp through a locked toilet door.
Asked by Judge Thokoliza Mapisa to plead, Pistorius softly responded: "Not guilty, My Lady" to the murder charge and several others relating to the fire arms act.
In a statement read out by his attorney, Kenny Oldwage, the athlete said there was "no basis whatsoever" for the State's contention that he had wanted to kill his glamorous girlfriend of three months.
He also vehemently denied Nel's contention that the couple had argued before the shooting on Valentine's Day last year.
But Nel immediately set out to prove that Pistorius was lying by calling Michelle Burger, an economics lecturer at the University of Pretoria, as the State's first witness.
Burger lives in the Silver Stream security estate, at a distance of 177 metres from Pistorius's home in the neighbouring Silver Woods complex.
Testifying in Afrikaans, she told the court she was woken up that night by the "blood-curdling screams" of a woman, followed by four gunshots.
Burgess said she and her husband woke up just after 3am when they heard the noise. Her husband rushed to the balcony.
"I was still sitting in the bed and I heard her screams," she told the court.
"She called for help. She screamed terribly and shouted for help. Then I heard a man also call for help. He called for help three times."
Burger said her husband called security guards and asked them to investigate.
"Then I heard her screams again," said Burger. "It was like a climax. I heard her anxiety. She was very scared."
Burger then heard shots, with a longer pause between the first and second shot than the rest.
"It was bang.....bang,bang,bang," she said.
Burger said she only learnt at work that Pistorius was arrested and then realised from aerial photographs shown in media footage just how close to him she lived.
The court adjourned for lunch after Burger left the stand.
Pistorius, who wore a black suit and tie, looked at his watch, got up and walked out alone, shaking hands with a few people along the way.
The case had started 90 minutes late as justice officials had to locate an interpreter to allow Burger to give testimony in Afrikaans.
While the opening arguments of the State and the defence were broadcast live on television, her face was not shown as she had requested to testify off camera.
It remains unclear whether Pistorius will take the stand in what has been dubbed the trial of the decade.
Oldwage on Monday read Pistorius's version of events to the court. In the statement, Pistorius insisted: "I approached the bathroom to defend Reeva and
I," and objected to what he called the State's attempts at character assassination.
Nel told the court that since there were no eye witnesses, the State will rely on circumstantial and forensic evidence to convict Pistorius.
Burger could be followed by more than 100 other state witnesses as the seasoned prosecutor sets out to do so in the glare of intense media scrutiny.
More than 300 reporters have vied for space in the court room and an overflow court and a scrum of local and foreign photographers have set up watch outside the court.
- Sapa
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