1.51pm BST 
 
 With the hearing over for the day, it's time for a closing summary. This will be very similar to the lunchtime summary, as we only had about 45 minutes of evidence in the afternoon: 
 
 
 
 • Oscar Pistorius has taken to the witness stand to begin giving evidence in his murder trial. He began with a tearful, broken-voiced apology to the family and friends of Reeva Steenkamp, his girlfriend who he shot in February last year, believing – he says – she was an intruder. 
 
 • Pistorius said there is "not a moment" when he does not think about her family, and prays for them daily. He added: "I've tried to put my words on paper many times to write to you but no words would ever suffice" 
 
 • Pistorius said he had taken anti-depressants and sleeping pills since the shooting, often waking with "terrible nightmares" in which he dreamed he could smell blood. He said he often calls his sister to sit with him during the night. On one occasion he climbed into a cupboard to call her. 
 
 • He said his religious faith was the only thing to sustain him over the past year: "There have been times when I've just been struggling a lot. My God is a God of refuge." 
 
 • Pistorius spoke at length about his fear about, and experience of, crime. He said his his mother was worried about intruders and kept a pistol under her pillow 
 
 • Pistorius said a speedboat accident in 2009 which almost killed him left him fearful and withdrawn. 
 
 • Earlier, the first defence witness was a pathologist, Prof Jan Botha, who questioned prosecution evidence that Steenkamp must have eaten about two hours before her death at 3am, something which runs counter to Pistorius's statement that they went to bed at 10pm. 
 
 • Botha was questioned aggressively and at length by the prosecution counsel, Gerrie Nel, giving a taste of the likely cross-examination Pistorius will face. 
 
 
 
 • While this evidence was heard, including details of Steenkamp's injuries and photos of wounds and blood, Pistorius spent much of the time with his hands over his face, also retching. ||||| The prosecution case against Oscar Pistorius began to unravel Wednesday with revelations of a series of police blunders and the lead investigator's admission that authorities have no evidence challenging the double-amputee Olympian's claim he killed his girlfriend accidentally. 
 
 Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands inside the court as a police officer looks on during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. A South African... (Associated Press) 
 
 Investigating officer Hilton Botha, sits inside the court witness box during the Oscar Pistorius bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. Olympic athlete... (Associated Press) 
 
 Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands inside the court as a police officer looks on during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. A South African... (Associated Press) 
 
 Detective Hilton Botha's often confused testimony left prosecutors rubbing their heads in frustration as he misjudged distances and said testosterone _ banned for professional athletes in some cases _ was found at the scene, only to be later contradicted by the prosecutor's office. 
 
 The second day of what was supposed to be a mere bail hearing almost resembled a full-blown trial for the 26-year-old runner, with his lawyer, Barry Roux, tearing into Botha's testimony step by step during cross examination. 
 
 Police, Botha acknowledged, left a 9 mm slug from the barrage that killed Reeva Steenkamp inside a toilet and lost track of illegal ammunition found inside the house. And the detective himself walked through the crime scene without wearing protective shoe covers, potentially contaminating the area. 
 
 Authorities, Roux asserted, were selectively taking "every piece of evidence to try to extract the most possibly negative connotation and present it to the court." 
 
 The case has riveted South Africa, with journalists and the curious crowding into the brick-walled courtroom where Pistorius, dubbed the Blade Runner for his prosthetic legs, faces a charge of premeditated murder in the Valentine's Day slaying. 
 
 Pistorius says he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder and shot her out of fear, while prosecutors say he planned the killing and attacked her as she cowered behind a locked bathroom door. 
 
 The day seemed to start out well for the prosecution, with Botha offering new details of the shooting that appeared to call into question Pistorius' account of the moments leading up to the 29-year-old model's death. 
 
 Ballistic evidence, he said, showed the bullets that killed her had been fired from a height, supporting the prosecution's assertion that Pistorius was wearing prosthetic legs when he took aim at the bathroom door. The athlete has maintained he was standing only on his stumps, and felt vulnerable and frightened as he opened fire from a low position. 
 
 Projecting a diagram of the bedroom and bathroom, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said it showed Pistorius had to walk past his bed to get to bathroom and could not have done so without seeing that Steenkamp was not asleep there. 
 
 "There's no other way of getting there," Nel said in disputing Pistorius' claim that he had no idea Steenkamp was no longer in bed when he pumped four bullets into the bathroom door, striking her with three. 
 
 Botha backed the prosecutor up, saying the holster for Pistorius' 9 mm pistol was found under the left side of the bed, where Steenkamp slept, and it would have been impossible for Pistorius to get the gun without checking to see if she was there. 
 
 "I believe that he knew that Reeva was in the bathroom and he shot four shots through the door," the detective said. 
 
 Botha described how bullets struck Steenkamp in the head and shattered her right arm and hip, eliciting sobs from Pistorius, who held his head in hands. 
 
 However, when asked if Steenkamp's body showed "any pattern of defensive wounds" or bruising from an assault, Botha said "no." He again responded "no" when asked if investigators found anything inconsistent with Pistorius' version of events, though he later said nothing contradicted the police version either. 
 
 Testimony began with the prosecutor telling the court that before the shooting, a neighbor heard "nonstop" shouting between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. at Pistorius' upscale home in a gated community in the capital, Pretoria. 
 
 However, Botha later said under cross examination that the witness was in a house 600 yards (meters) away, possibly out of earshot. He cut that estimate in half when questioned again by the prosecutor, as confusion reigned for much of his testimony. 
 
 At one point, Botha told the court that police found syringes and two boxes of testosterone in Pistorius' bedroom _ testimony the prosecution later withdrew, saying it was too early to identify the substance, which was still being tested. 
 
 "It is not certain (what it is) until the forensics" are completed, Medupe Simasiku, a spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecution Agency, told The Associated Press. It's not clear if it was "a legal or an illegal medication for now." 
 
 The defense also disputed the claim. "It is an herbal remedy," Roux said. "It is not ... a banned substance." 
 
 Still, Botha offered potentially damaging details about Pistorius' past, saying the athlete was once involved in an accidental shooting at a restaurant in Johannesburg and asked someone else "to take the wrap." 
 
 The runner also threatened men on two separate occasions, Botha said, allegedly telling one he'd "break his legs." 
 
 The detective said police found two iPhones in Pistorius' bathroom and two BlackBerrys in his bedroom, and none had been used to phone for help. Guards at the gated community did call the athlete, Botha said, and all he said was: "I'm all right," as he wept uncontrollably. 
 
 Roux later suggested that a fifth phone, not collected by the police, was used by Pistorius to call for help. 
 
 The question now is whether Botha's troubled testimony will be enough to convince Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair to keep Pistorius in prison until trial. While Pistorius faces the harshest bail requirements under South African law, the magistrate has said he would consider loosening them based on testimony in the hearing. Final arguments were scheduled for Thursday. 
 
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 Gerald Imray reported from Johannesburg. Associated Press writer Michelle Faul in Johannesburg contributed to this report. 
 
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 Jon Gambrell can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP. Gerald Imray can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/geraldimrayAP.
– Oscar Pistorius' defense team is launching its case, and yet again, the testimony seems to have been too much for the athlete to take. Pistorius threw up multiple times—now a frequent occurrence—into a bucket as a forensic pathologist discussed the bullet wounds that killed Reeva Steenkamp, Reuters reports. The pathologist, Jannie Botha, agreed with the state pathologist regarding the sequence of shots that hit Steenkamp. A sobbing Pistorius and others in the court couldn't bear to look at graphic photos displayed, NBC News notes. Next, Pistorius himself took the witness stand and began by apologizing to Steenkamp's family. "There is not a moment and there hasn't been a moment since this tragedy happened that I haven't thought about your family," he said, struggling to speak clearly through emotion. Other noteworthy moments, via the Guardian: Pistorius said he has trouble sleeping. "I have terrible nightmares about what happened that night. I wake up and I can smell blood." He often calls his sister for help, once doing so from inside a cupboard, he said. He added that he never wanted to touch a gun again. He discussed his close relationship with his mother and her sudden death when he was a teenager. As for his physical abilities without his prosthetics, a question central to the shooting: "I don't have balance on my stumps. I can stand on my stumps. I can't stand still on my stumps."