Pistorius testifies hewas trying to protect girlfriend

Former Olympic runner apologizes to Steenkamp family

pretoria, south africa » His voice shaking, Oscar Pistorius took the witness stand Monday for the first time, testifying that he was trying to protect the girlfriend he killed and that he became so tormented by memories of the fatal shooting and panic attacks that he once hid in a closet.

Pistorius also offered an apology to the family of Reeva Steenkamp, who died from multiple wounds after the double-amputee runner shot her through a closed toilet door last year in his home.

He said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder. Prosecutors allege he killed her after an argument.

“There hasn’t been a moment since this tragedy happened that I haven’t thought about your family,” the athlete said at the murder trial as Steenkamp’s mother, June, looked impassively at him in the courtroom.

“Iwas simply trying to protectReeva. I can promise that when she went to bed that night, she felt loved,” Pistorius said.

Pistorius’ display of anguish and remorse was a marked departure fromthe testimony of some prosecution witnesses, whose accounts painted a picture of the runner as a hothead with a jealous streak, an inflated sense of entitlement and an obsession with guns in the months before he killed Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model.

He has yet to be cross-examined about the shooting in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013, and that testimony is likely to be the centerpiece of a trial being broadcast on television and followed around the world. Pistorius was chargedwith premeditated murder and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Some analysts think the judge, who will decide the case, will consider a lesser charge such as homicide, which could still send him to prison for years.