Police photographs of Oscar Pistorius standing with his blood-stained prosthetic legs and wearing shorts covered in blood, taken shortly after the athlete fatally shot his girlfriend, were shown at his murder trial yesterday.

Prosecutors displayed two photos on TVs in court.

In one, the Olympic athlete, who is shirtless, is facing the camera wearing his prosthetics. There are blood stains up to the knees of his limbs and his shorts are bloodied, but his naked chest seems clean of blood.

A second photograph shows Mr Pistorius from the waist up and from the left, showing blood on his shorts and parts of his body, with a tattoo visible on his back.

The photographs were taken in the garage of Mr Pistorius's Pretoria home where he killed Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day last year, a former policeman testified.

Ex-police colonel G.S. van Rensburg described the early part of the police inquiry into the shooting after he arrived at the scene around 30 to 40 minutes after prosecutors say Mr Pistorius killed Ms Steenkamp, 29, early on February 14, 2013.

The prosecution says Mr Pistorius meant to kill Ms Steenkamp in a bathroom after a row and tried to cover it up by saying he thought the model was a intruder.

Mr Pistorius, 27, claims the killing was an accident and pled not guilty to all charges against him.

Mr van Rensburg said he did not arrest Mr Pistorius immediately after discovering Ms Steenkamp had been shot dead, but did warn him to remain at the house.

During the investigation in the bathroom, Mr van Rensburg said he saw the firearms expert had handled the gun Mr Pistorius used to kill Ms Steenkamp and taken the magazine out of the weapon without using gloves.

"I asked him, 'what are you doing?"' Mr van Rensburg said. The officer realised his error, apologised, put the magazine back in the gun and laid it on the mat where it was on the floor, Mr van Rensburg said. He then took the gloves out of his chest pocket, and again picked up the gun, according to Mr van Rensburg.