Pretoria – Oscar Pistorius had previously believed an intruder was in his house, the North Gauteng High Court heard on Friday.

Samantha Taylor, an ex-girlfriend of Pistorius, said that on one or two occasions while she had been at his home, he had believed there could have been a burglar in the house.

She recalled one night when Pistorius heard something hit against the bathroom window.

“One occasion… he woke me up and asked if I had heard it. I told him it was probably the storm,” said Taylor.

Gun

He said Pistorius took his gun, and he and a friend who was living with him at the time went to investigate. The two men found nothing.

Pistorius is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, whom he shot dead through a locked bathroom door in his Pretoria home.

He says he mistook her for an intruder.

The State, however, argues that it was premeditated murder.

Taylor completed delivering her evidence on Friday afternoon before the court adjourned for lunch.

Pistorius scared of being attacked

Earlier, Pistorius’s lawyer Barry Roux told the court that his client feared being attacked.

“He was… very scared that he could be attacked,” Roux put to Taylor.

She replied: “Not necessarily… I don’t think he was scared.”

Roux then asked her about a day in April 2012 when she and Pistorius were pursued by a white C Class Mercedes.

“I recall it being a black BMW,” she said.

She said when they arrived at Pistorius’s gated complex in Pretoria, the athlete got out of his car with his gun and the car drove off.

She said neither of them was particularly scared at the time.

“He didn’t seem very concerned,” Taylor said.

She said when Pistorius walked on his stumps he had to balance against something.

Responding to Roux’s statement that Pistorius kept his gun under his bed, she said he either kept it on the floor next to his bed or on his bedside table.

SAPA