Witness weeps at Pistorius murder trial

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock on the second day of his trial at the high court in Pretoria, South Africa, Tuesday, March 4, 2014. Pistorius is charged with murder for the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentines Day in 2013. (AP Photo/Antoine de Ras, Pool)

The first witness in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial broke down in tears Tuesday, saying she still remembers the terrified screams of a woman on the night the double-amputee Olympic athlete killed his girlfriend by shooting four times through a toilet door.

Michelle Burger, who lives near Pistorius' home and who had been composed through two days of grueling cross-examination, wept as she finished her testimony.

Earlier the trial was interrupted and the judge ordered an investigation into allegations that a South African television channel was broadcasting a photograph of Burger — against a court order guaranteeing privacy to witnesses who request it.

Gerrie Nel, the prosecutor, asked Burger about her emotions at the time when she made her statement to police.

"It was quite raw," Burger said, her voice breaking.

"When I'm in the shower, I relive her shouts," she said of hearing the woman screaming before the sound of gunshots in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine's Day last year. Burger lives about 177 metres (193 yards) from Pistorius' house.

Nel asked her how she was coping.

"I'm coping fine," Burger said. "It's been a year."

Burger's testimony about events on the night of Feb. 14, 2013, contradicts the Olympian's story. Pistorius says he shot four times through a toilet door, hitting Steenkamp three times in the head, arm and hip or side area after thinking she was a dangerous intruder. He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge lodged by prosecutors, who say Pistorius intentionally killed Steenkamp.

During cross-examination of Burger, Pistorius lawyer Barry Roux insisted the university lecturer was mistaken in saying that she heard a woman screaming and that she actually had heard Pistorius screaming for help in a high voice after accidentally shooting Steenkamp.

Giving sometimes grisly details of the 29-year-old model Steenkamp's killing, Roux said Steenkamp had been shot in the head, which would have resulted in brain damage and "no cognitive function" and so she wouldn't have been able to scream just after the last bullet struck, as Burger testified.

"With the head shot, she (Steenkamp) would have dropped down immediately," Roux said.

Burger disagreed. "I heard her voice just after the last shot," she said. "It faded away."