Tears and gasps echoed through the courtroom as Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius was confronted with an image of his lover's bloody head - which made him vomit on the floor.
Pistorius' trial was one of the most-dramatic in recent history as he defended himself from the accusation of slaughtering his new girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, 29, in cold blood after an argument.
The Paralympian insisted that he shot Reeva through the bathroom door of his swanky home in Pretoria, South Africa, because he thought she was an intruder.
Prosecutors paraded images usually reserved for horror films as the lead lawyer, known as the "pit bull" for his vicious tongue, tore Pistorius to shreds.
By the end of the trial the female judge had decided the professional sprinter had killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, through negligence rather than intentional homicide - a conviction that was upgraded to murder a few years later.
As a result of the trial, Pistorius - whose legs were amuptated in childhood due to a congenital defect - was initially sentenced to five years for culpable homicide.
Here are the most dramatic moments from the five-month trial that gripped the world...
The photo that made Pistorius retch
"Pit bull" prosecutor Gerrie Nel wasted no time in showing the horrific wounds Reeva sustained before crumpling lifeless on to the floor of Pistorius' home.
With the sprinter in the dock, he lifted a photo of Reeva's head - which had "exploded" from the gunshot wound - for him and the courtroom to see.
The picture, which The Mirror has not published, showed the young woman lying still, with her eyes closed and her head lobbing to the side, clearly showing the mass of blood and tissue that had erupted.
Mr Nel urged the star athlete to look at his girlfriend, which he refused, saying he had already seen it at the scene after her death.
“I remember … I was there,” Pistorius said before he burst out in tears and vomited.
Reeva's heartbroken family, who were in the court, were warned the photograph would feature as an exhibit. Her mother June said she wanted the sprinter to see what he'd done.
The rest of the court were less agreeable to seeing the image and many were left stunned by its graphic nature.
The couple's private messages
The correspondence between the athlete and his girlfriend gave the world a glimpse into their private life - which was filled with both passion and searing jealousy.
At the time of Reeva's killing, the pair had only been together for a couple of months. In South Africa's sports and celebrity circles, they were painted as the "it couple".
But while everything looked perfect to the wider world, the reality of their romance was less than ideal.
One message lifted from Reeva's phone read: “I am the girl who let go with u even when I was scared out of my mind to. I’m the girl who fell in love with u and wanted to tell u this weekend.
"But I’m also the girl that gets sidestepped when you are in a s**t mood."
“I feel you think u have me so why try anymore…” another said.
However, many of the messages showed the couple were deeply in love, and even had cute pet names for each other. Pistorius called Reeva "Angel" with her calling him "Baba".
In one of the most relevant messages to the prosecution, sent just weeks before the killing, Reeva told the Paralympian: "I'm scared of you".
The model said Pistorius often erupted into jealous "tantrums", and would behave in ways that could be considered coercivce.
It came after Pistorius got the idea into his head that Reeva had flirted with a friend's husband at another pal Darren Fresco's engagement party the year before.
Reeva, 29, complained the double amputee had made a scene and forced them to leave early.
Though they were potentially incriminating, the judge decided that the couple's relationship could not be understood from the text messages alone.
The 'Blade Runner' takes off his prosthetic legs
A key element of the case, for both sides, was whether Pistorius had entered the bathroom with his prosthetic legs on when he found his girlfriend lying dead on the floor.
During the first few days of the trial, his defence lawyer Barry Roux asked him to take off his prosthtetic legs to show how he used a bat to break down the bathroom door after killing her.
For some, it was the first time they'd seen him without his "blades" or walking on his residual limbs.
While competing, Pistorius wore prosthetic legs or the J-shaped blades that earned him the nickname "Blade Runner".
By removing his artificial appendages, he was able to prove his side of the story. He said that after realising Reeva was behind the door, he returned to their room to put on the legs.
Apologies and the smell of blood
While giving evidence, Pistorius apologised emotionally to his late lover's family.
Tears rolled down his cheeks as he told the court how he still suffered sleepless nights and was plagued by nightmares, so much so that he was terrified to fall asleep.
Looking directly at Reeva's mother, he said: "There is not a moment and there hasn't been a moment since this tragedy happened that I haven't thought about your family.
"I wake up in the morning and you're the first people I think of, the first people I pray for."
"I'm scared to sleep," he added.
"I have terrible nightmares about things that happened that night. I smell the blood and wake up terrified."
He revealed how he had started taking antidepressants and sleeping pills to help him cope, as well as calling his sister in the wee hours for comfort.
He also claimed to have lost a "large amount of weight" after the incident.
He recounted one occasion when he woke up so scared in the middle of the night that he crawled into a cupboard before calling his sister, who came round to sit with him.
"I wake up in a complete state of terror to the point that I would rather not sleep," he added.
At the start of the testimony he said: "I was simply trying to protect Reeva."
A fluid defence
While on the witness stand, Pistorius changed his defence multiple times.
At first, he said he fired through the bathroom door in self defence before switching to saying he never had the intention to shoot.
During his evidence he also contradicted himself a number of times and even accused his legal team of failing to ask proper questions.
This swiftly affected his credibility in the eyes of the court, and gave the prosecution apt opportunity to question his claims.
'The moment that everything changed'
Pistorius sobbed and wailed uncontrollably as he recounted the moment that he realised he had killed his girlfriend.
Giving his version of events for the first time since the shooting, the Olympic and Paralympic athlete wept loudly as he described holding his girlfriend.
He said: "I sat over Reeva and cried. I don't know how long I was there for."
He then paused before letting out a distressing wail and crying the words "she wasn't breathing."
Describing the few moments before shooting Reeva to death, he said he heard a window being opened in the bathroom, saying "that's the moment everything changed".
