Dr. Lore Hartzenberg gave a testimony ahead of the runner’s sentencing for culpable homicide, and it was almost immediately characterized by the chief prosecutor as unbalanced.

Hartzenberg said, Oscar Pistorius is a “broken man” after killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp because he lost the woman he said he loved as well as his reputation, friends, income and sense of self-worth, a psychologist called by his lawyers testified Monday.

He added that Pistorius had sometimes cried, retched, perspired and paced up and down during meetings in which she tried to assist him.

“Some of the sessions were just him weeping and crying and me holding him,” Hartzenberg said.

The testimony was part of an effort by the runner’s legal team to persuade Judge Thokozile Masipa that Pistorius has suffered emotionally and materially for what he said was an accident and that he is remorseful. The team hopes the judge will be lenient when she sentences Pistorius after what is expected to be about a week of legal argument and testimony.

“We are left with a broken man who has lost everything,” Hartzenberg said during her testimony.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel criticized her findings, saying Pistorius would likely have the chance to rebuild his life.