Oscar Pistorius to Reeva Steenkamp’s Family: I’m Sorry I Killed Her, ‘I Was Simply Trying to Protect Reeva’

A sobbing and shaky Oscar Pistorius apologized Monday for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp but insisted he was “simply trying to protect” her.

The South African sprinter also played the religion card, calling it a “blessing” when he met Steenkamp and insisting he always wanted a “partner who was a Christian.”

“We would pray about everything,” Pistorius claimed. “We would pray about my training, before we would eat.”

Pistorius’ voice quavered so much when he described how he wakes up from nightmares about the shooting to the “smell of blood” that Judge Thokozile Masipa told him to speak up.

But if Pistorius scored any points on day 17 of his murder trial, it was not evident in the expression on the face of Steenkamp’s mother, June. She sat stone-faced for the two hours he was on the stand.

Prosecutors say Pistorius chased Steenkamp into the bathroom of his Pretoria pad during a fight on Valentine’s Day 2013 and blasted her through the door when she wouldn’t come out.

Pistorius, a 27-year-old double amputee who uses scythe-like prosthetics to run, claims he was terrified that an intruder was hiding in the toilet cubicle when he fired four times

Before taking the stand, Pistorius — as he’s done several times during his trial — retched into a green bucket as some forensic evidence was being discussed.

“I want to start off by tendering an apology,” he began. “I wake up every morning and you’re the first people I think of, the first people I pray for ... I was simply trying to protect Reeva. I can promise that when she went to bed that night she felt loved.”

Then Pistorius spent the next two hours trying to counter the prosecution’s portrayal of him as a gun-loving, jealous, hothead who often scared his 29-year-old girlfriend.

Pistorius talked about how he overcame his disability to become an Olympian, how he loves his dogs, his charity work and his religion.

Earlier in the trial, Pistorius was seen thumbing through a Bible studies book and reading an inspirational book by Brooklyn megachurch pastor Jim Cymbala.

Pistorius, 27, told the court he takes antidepressants to cope with his grief and pills so he can sleep at night. 

“I'm scared to sleep for several reasons, I have terrible nightmares at night where I wake up and smell blood, and wake up and be terrified," he said.

Pistorius described one night when he went to hide in a closet after waking up in “a panic.” 

“I climbed into a cupboard and I phoned my sister to come and sit by me, which she did for a while,” he told the court.

But before Pistorius could begin testifying about the fatal shooting, he told the judge he was too exhausted to carry on. “The weight of this is extremely overbearing,” he said.

Masipa said he could resume testifying on Tuesday.

If convicted of premeditated murder, Pistorius faces 25 years to life in prison.