Pretoria – Paralympian Oscar Pistorius arrived at the North Gauteng High Court at around 09:10 on Wednesday for the third day of his murder trial.

He was surrounded by police and security as he walked through a contingent of media waiting to catch a picture of him.

Pistorius was wearing a dark suit and carrying a laptop bag.

The Pistorius family was seen walking in a few minutes later.

Proceedings got under way at 09:30.

Setting up

Earlier, journalists were running extension cords to power their mobile devices and sorting out technical problems before the start of proceedings.

One man climbed up the bars of the heavy iron gate used to secure the front entrance of the court. He used duct tape to secure a mini camera to the bars, in the hope of snapping footage of Pistorius arriving at court without being crushed in the melee.

Another stood on a concrete dustbin, arranging his camera on the roof of the bus stop outside the court so that it faced the entrance.

Outside court two men were handing out free bottled water and energy drinks to police and journalists.

“We came because it seems all of you are here,” one of them said.

Inside the court, one journalist, on the phone to a colleague, speculated there would be a lot of “aggravated questions” from Barry Roux, SC, for Pistorius, to the “fit, slim” State witness Charl Johnson, who started testifying on Tuesday.

Johnson is married to Michelle Burger, who was the State’s first witness.

The State will try to prove that Pistorius committed premeditated murder when he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through the toilet door in his Pretoria townhouse on 14 February last year.

In addition he is charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and recklessly discharging a firearm in public.

Pistorius contends he mistook her for an intruder when he shot through the door.

SAPA