SOBBING: OSCAR PISTORIUS CLUTCHES ROSARY BEADS IN THE DOCK AS DOCTOR TELLS OF HARROWING MOMENT HE TRIED TO SAVE REEVA

Oscar Pistorius wept in the dock today as a neighbour described the harrowing moment he tried to resuscitate his girlfriend after she was shot.

Radiologist Johan Stipp dashed to the Paralympian's home after hearing gunshots to find Pistorius kneeling next to Reeva Steenkamp and 'praying to God' that she would survive, the trial heard.

He said: 'At the bottom of the stairs... there was a lady lying on her back on the floor. It was obvious that she was mortally wounded.

'I went near her and, as I bent down, I also noticed a man on the left kneeling by her side. He had his left hand on her right groin, and his right hand, the second and third fingers in her mouth.

'I remember the first thing he said when I got there was "I shot her. I thought she was a burglar. I shot her".'

As he gave his testimony, Pistorius bent forward in the dock and put his hand over his face while clutching rosary beads on what was the 12th anniversary of his mother's death.

He then moved his hands to cover both ears.

The dramatic evidence by Dr Stipp was the first detailed public description of the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Miss Steenkamp on Valentine's day last year.

Oscar,  crying at the trial 

Dr Stipp, who said he didn't know who Pistorius was until later, said he tried to help, but Miss Steenkamp showed no signs of life.

He said he noticed a wound in her right thigh, in her upper arm and in the right side of the head and there was brain tissue around the skull.

He said: 'She had no pulse in the neck, she had no peripheral pulse. She had no breathing movements that she made. 

'Oscar was crying all the time,' he said. 'He was praying to God, saying "Please let her live".

'Oscar said he would dedicate "his life and her life to God" if she would live and not die that night.'

Earlier, Pistorius's lawyer claimed neighbours could not possibly have heard a woman's screams the night he shot his girlfriend because she was inside a locked bathroom.

On a second day of fierce cross-examination, lawyer Barry Roux attacked witness Charl Johnson's assertion that he heard screaming and gunshots when Reeva Steenkamp was killed.

Mr Roux said: 'At the time you heard the deceased, she was in a locked bathroom.

'The deceased was in the toilet and the door was locked. Even standing on the balcony, it would have been impossible to hear the screams.'

Mr Roux says the banging sounds were actually Pistorius hitting a toilet door with a bat and the screaming was the distressed athlete calling for help.

Mr Johnson said he 'disputed' some of what Mr Roux was saying and described in more detail what he heard on the night Pistorius shot his girlfriend to death.

He said: 'The fear in the lady person's calls contrasted with a very monotone male voice. The man almost sounded embarrassed to be calling for help.'

Yesterday, Mr Roux lawyer had sought to undermine the testimony of Mr Johnson and his wife Michell Burger, saying similarities in their accounts indicated they had aligned their versions at the expense of the truth.

He said there were differences between the statements that they had given to police after the shooting and testimony they had given in court.

Both the statements and the testimony shared similarities, Mr Roux said, implying that the couple had contaminated their evidence by talking through what they were going to say.

'You could just as well have stood together in the witness box,' he said during cross-examination on the third day of the trial. 'What do you say to that?'

The tart assertion drew a caution from Judge Thokozile Masipa, who told Roux he had gone too far.

Roux contended that crucial elements in the testimony of the couple were missing in their earlier comments to police.

This included the statements that they heard a woman's screams rising in anxiety and intensity and that they heard the woman's voice 'fading' after the last in a volley of gunshots.

Mr Johnson suggested that he and his wife were more expressive while testifying in court than when providing information for a police document.

'I would venture a guess that it's the way you verbally tell the story,' he said.

'There's a lot more emotion involved... whereas the statement is more factual.'

Mr Roux later said that telephone records will show that the banging sounds the neighbors heard were actually a distressed Pistorius hitting a toilet door with a cricket bat after realising he had shot Miss Steenkamp.

Mr Roux says call records will show Pistorius called an estate manager at around 3.19am soon after he bashed in the door with the bat.

In Johnson and Burger's testimony, they say they heard what they described as shots straight after making a call to security at 3.16 am.

The similar times show the sounds were the bat on the door, Roux argued.

'There is only one thing you could have heard, because it coincides precisely,' Mr Roux said to Johnson. '

That was the time that he (Pistorius) broke down the door (with the bat).'

Johnson replied, addressing the judge: 'My lady, I am convinced the sound I heard was gunshots.'

'I understand,' Roux said in the exchange, suggesting Johnson had convinced himself they were shots.

Throwing doubt on the their recollection of the sequence is crucial for Pistorius's defense after the state maintained there was a loud argument on the night he shot Steenkamp through a door in his bathroom and screams and shouts before a gun was fired.

Pistorius's team wants to show the screams were Pistorius calling for help after the accidental shots.

Before giving his testimony, Mr Johnson had earlier told how he has been inundated with abusive phone calls from the athlete's supporters after his mobile number was read out in court.

Charl Johnson told the judge he received one 'intimidating' voicemail which said: 'Why are you lying in court? You know Oscar didn't kill Reeva. It's not cool.'

He said he has been forced to switch off his phone after receiving so many calls which he said was a breach of his privacy.

He told the court: 'It keeps on ringing so I keep it off. I feel my privacy has been compromised severely.'

His phone number was read out in court by Pistorius's lawyer Barry Roux yesterday, but Mr Johnson said he wasn't aware of this because he was sat in the witness room.

After a break, prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked for permission to stand down Mr Johnson to get more records.

The judge agreed and the case moved on to its fourth witness, the South African boxer and friend of Pistorius, Kevin Lerena.

Mr Lerena told the trial how Pistorius asked a friend to take the blame after he accidentally discharged a pistol under the table of a Johannesburg restaurant a month before he killed his girlfriend.

Testifying for the prosecution against the South African Olympic and Paralympic track star, professional boxer Kevin Lerena described how he, Pistorius and two others had been having dinner at Tashas restaurant when the gun went off.

Lerena said one of the group, Darren Fresco, passed his pistol under the table to Pistorius, telling him there was 'one up' - an indication that a round was loaded in the chamber.

Mr Lerena said: 'A shot went off. Then there was just compelte silence.

'I looked down at the floor and exactly where I looked down, where my foot was, there was a hole in the floor. I had a little graze on my toe, but I wasn't hurt.'

Pistorius immediately apologised to his fellow diners and checked they had not been hurt, but then turned to Mr Fresco and asked him to take responsibility, Lerena said, testifying on the third day of Pistorius' murder trial in Pretoria.

Mr Lerena quoted Pistorius as saying: 'Please take the blame for me - there's too much media hype around me'.

He added: 'When the restaurant owners came up, Darren took the blame.'

Lerena, who goes by the ring name of KO Kid, was giving evidence in relation to a lesser charge brought against Pistorius of discharging a weapon in a public place.

The prosecution has sought to portray the 27-year-old athlete, known as Blade Runner, as gun-obsessed.