How bullets ripped into Reeva

Reeva Steenkamp was hunched over in a toilet cubicle in a defensive position when a bullet tore through the door and shattered her skull, killing her.

This is according to the police's ballistics evidence, which indicates that this was the last of four shots Pistorius fired. The first to hit the swimsuit model struck her in the hip, ballistics expert Captain Christian Mangena told the Pretoria High Court yesterday.

Oscar Pistorius's defence team maintains that the first bullet struck Steenkamp in the head, killing her before she could scream, in the early hours of StValentine's Day last year.

Mangena said Steenkamp was standing, facing the toilet door, when she was shot the first time.

He said the impact of the bullet shattered her right hip and forced her to fall backwards onto a magazine rack. While squatting on the rack she went into a crouch, her hands to her head in a defensive position and facing the toilet door.

Two more bullets struck her. One, according to Mangena, hit her in the right arm; the last penetrated her left hand, which was covering her head, and shattered her skull.

The last bullet caused her to fall off the magazine rack. Her head smashed into the toilet seat and its cover.

Fragments of the second-last bullet left deep bruises to her back after ricocheting off the wall behind her, he said.

Steenkamp's mother, June, did not look at the photographs of the blood-smeared toilet on the screen set up in court.

Before the start of proceedings, Pistorius's sister, Aimee, passed a handwritten note to June.

The note was passed after a discussion between Pistorius and Aimee.

Mangena said Pistorius's contention that he fired four shots in quick succession could not be true. He said the wounds would then be very close together and there would not have been time for Steenkamp to fall before other bullets were fired.

"There was a break between the first shot and the second. I can't say how long, but there was a break. It's possible that the next three shots were in quick succession," he said.

Mangena said Pistorius was "most likely" not wearing his prosthetic legs when he fired the shots.

Colonel Mike Sales, of the Hawks, testified about Pistorius's internet use. The web pages he visited after 6pm that night were shown in court. They included car-sales website Auto Trader and a "free mobile porn" site.

The last site he visited, at 9.19pm, was a Google image search for a Morgan Aeromax, a limited edition sports car.

The trial continues on Monday. - Additional reporting by Marzanne van den Berg