Court hears Oscar ordered nurse to 'get out' of his cell

Convicted murdered Oscar Pistorius ordered a nurse out of his prison cell when she came to check on him, the High Court in Pretoria heard today.

“He became angry. He just shouted that I’m disturbing him and I must get out because he’s still sleeping. I listened to him and he covered himself with the sheet. He said ‘get out, get out’,” Kgosi Mampuru’s assistant health manager and professional nurse Charlotte Mashobane said.

She said he was surprised by his behaviour as he had never acted like this before. This happened on March 1, 2015, she said to questioning from prosecutor Gerrie Nel.

She was testifying in aggravation of sentencing for Pistorius after he was convicted of killing Reeva Steenkamp.

On the second occasion, Pistorius came into the nurses’ duty room demanding feedback on a supplement and a “device” he had asked to have. Mashobane said the request had to go through various offices for security clearance and could not be approved in two days.

“He said you must give me this report. I need my feedback. I explained to him that the procedure for approval won’t take two days. He stated ‘no, don’t play these tactics’. [He] had a notebook and banged the table,” Mashobane said.

She said he was shaking with anger.

Pistorius sat in the dock looking at her. At one point he rested his elbow on the backrest of his bench and used his hand to shield his eyes.

The court heard on Monday that during a search of his cell, 28 tablets of Molipaxin and 14 of Cipralex, both antidepressants, were found in his cell. Nel asked her whether inmates were allowed to have medication in their cells and self-medicate. Mashobane said no.

Matters took a lighter turn when Barry Roux, for Pistorius, started his cross-examination. He asked her what the purpose of her testimony was.

“I’m not coming to tell that he’s a violent [person],” she said.

“So I can exclude that. He’s not a violent person?” Roux asked her, waving his arm.

Mashobane, who was standing in the witness box, was looking down and paging through the complaints register of the section of the prison. Suddenly she shot back: “He is actually. Sometimes he can [be]", to laughter from the gallery.

Judge Thokozile Masipa adjourned for 30 minutes for lunch. She asked people in the public gallery to restrain themselves.

(File photo: Gallo Images)