1. What did you do on the evening of February 13?

Pistorius has previously explained the couple spent a quiet night at his Pretoria home on February 13, 2013. By about 10pm, they were in his bedroom. “She was doing her yoga exercises and I was in bed watching television,” he said. He said when Reeva was finished, she got into bed and they both fell asleep. However, he will almost certainly be asked what occurred before bed – in particular, whether they shared a meal together. The state’s pathologist, Gert Saayman, who conducted the autopsy on Ms Steenkamp, says there was food matter in her stomach consistent with her having eaten no more than two hours before her death. That would put the time of her meal about 1am – contrary to the double-amputee’s version. The court has also heard Pistorius’ iPad recorded that he looked at a pornographic website that evening, along with expensive car sale sites. Was this cause for tension?

2. What was your frame of mind that afternoon and evening?

Among a number of messages sent between the couple on February 13, Ms Steenkamp writes: “It’s a difficult thing to try and console you on baba because it’s a shitty thing and you’re a nice guy. I guess these things happen and we can just hope they work out for the best. You are an amazing person with so many blessings and you are more than cared for. Your health and future monetary blessings far out way this hurdle I can promise u that.” It’s understood Pistorius had been looking to buy a property in Johannesburg around the time of the shooting, had some financial woes fuelled an angry mood?

3. Why did you open fire?

Pistorius claims he woke up in the early hours of February 14 and, as he brought in a fan from the balcony, heard a noise in his bathroom.  In a bail application affidavit he “felt a sense of terror rushing over me”, believing someone had entered his home. Feeling “extremely vulnerable” without his prosthetic legs, Pistorius says he grabbed his 9mm pistol from underneath his bed and went toward the bathroom in the pitch darkness. After hearing a second noise, he fired four shots through the door. But it is alleged Pistorius knew well the laws in South Africa regarding the shooting of weapons. Firearms instructor Sean Rens said Pistorius was aware it was illegal to open fire unless an armed intruder was advancing toward him, threatening his life. He also knew the importance of “target identification”, answering the firearm test question on this point with: “Know your target and what lies beyond.”

4. Why didn’t you ensure Ms Steenkamp was safe before opening fire?

Pistorius claims he believed Ms Steenkamp was in their bed just metres away as he moved toward the bathroom brandishing his pistol in the early hours of that fateful morning. He says specifically it was “pitch dark”. But his version also makes plain that he had to reach beneath the bed to reach his pistol, meaning their heads would have been centimetres apart if she was there as he did so. Was his primary concern not to ensure her safety too? His bail application affidavit includes that he yelled out “words to the effect for him/them to get out of my house and for Reeva to phone the police”. But when she didn’t respond, did he not think twice about opening fire? If he truly thought there was an intruder, why did he not seek to ensure Ms Steenkamp headed to safety downstairs before pursuing the intruder?

5. Neighbours say they heard a female screaming. Why didn’t you hear it too and stop firing?

Five neighbours said they heard a female screaming from Pistorius’ home shortly after 3am on February 14. Two heard a pause between the first shot and the next three, corroborating the evidence of ballistics expert Captain Chris Mangena, that Ms Steenkamp was standing for the first shot but collapsed on to a magazine rack as the bullet shattered her hip bone, her hands around her head trying to shield her from more bullets. Pathologist Saayman has told the court it would have been abnormal if Ms Steenkamp had not screamed, as the wounds to her hip and arm were so severe they could have been ultimately fatal in themselves. However, lawyers for Pistorius have argued the shots were fired in such quick succession that they would have left her unable to make a sound. Pistorius may testify that he could not hear the screams due to the extremely loud sound of the gunshots in the confined space of his bathroom. Pistorius’ counsel has also repeatedly suggested his client “screams like a girl” when anxious – so did neighbours in fact just hear the Olympian screaming?

6. What explanation can you give for your phone connecting to the internet for more than five minutes at 1.48am?

Extensive data collected from the phones of both Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp have been tendered to the court. He made a couple of calls that night, and her phone did not appear to send or receive any messages after about 9pm. But his smartphone appears to have connected to the internet for more than five minutes from 1.48am. This strangely coincides with evidence from neighbour Estelle van der Merwe, who said she heard two people arguing at 1.56am.

7. Are you a reckless young man, prone to angry outbursts?

Pistorius rejects allegations from a former girlfriend, Samantha Taylor, and friend Darren Fresco, that he once fired a shot through an open sunroof of a speeding vehicle. He also will reject any suggestion it was his reckless mishandling of a friend’s weapon that caused it to discharge in a crowded Johannesburg restaurant, narrowly missing a friend’s foot. But the Pretoria High Court has heard he wanted to shoot a traffic light in anger after a run-in with police, and also got his friend Mr Fresco to take the blame for the restaurant incident. The evidence relates to three firearms charges Pistorius also faces which, if proven, could amount to jail sentences in themselves.

8. Were you a jealous boyfriend?

Telephone evidence retrieved from Ms Steenkamp’s phone reveal the pair had at least two significant arguments in the lead-up to her death, the 29-year-old model at one stage telling Pistorius she was afraid of his jealous outbursts. Three weeks before her death, Steenkamp told him in a message that while she tried her best to make him happy, she was also fearful of his increasingly frequent angry reactions. “I’m scared of u sometimes and how u snap at me and of how u will react to me,” Ms Steenkamp wrote on January 27. A week before her death, she told him in another message: “I can’t be attacked by outsiders for dating you AND be attacked by you, the one person I deserve protection from.” However, he claims the couple were in love, and happy, with 90 per cent of their messages being romantic and adoring.

9. What did Ms Steenkamp give you for Valentine’s Day? And had you bought her a gift?

In his bail affidavit, Pistorius said Ms Steenkamp had given him a present for Valentine's Day but asked him only to open it the next day. Had he bought her something as well? Pistorius may use evidence on this point to reinforce his argument that theirs was a happy, harmonious relationship.

10. Why was Ms Steenkamp locked in the toilet, and why was her phone found in the bathroom?

The trial has been shown photographs of an iPhone, believed to be Ms Steenkamp’s, lying in a pool of blood in Pistorius’ bathroom following her death. If Ms Steenkamp had simply got up to go to the toilet in the night, why had she taken her phone? While it did not appear she called anyone after 9pm –was she about to? The door to the toilet was locked at the time Pistorius fired through it, too. It was 3am, why did she lock herself into the cubicle?