First round to smooth-talking OJ wins the first round

Simpson unflappable as he takes the stand in civil trial

Cheryl Cooke, a black woman among some 200 people who queued to see OJ Simpson take the stand for the first time yesterday, declared outside the court-room that she was hoping to "see Simpson sweat".

She would have been largely disappointed yesterday. Mr Simpson, setting out to show himself innocent of the brutal murders of his ex-wife, Nicole, and the waiter Ronald Goldman, proved a practised, at times almost conversational, and thus far an unshakeable, witness in his own defence.

It is more than two years since the bodies of Nicole Simpson and Mr Goldman, an acquaintance who had come to drop off her mother's missing glasses, were found at her home in west Los Angeles.

But Mr Simpson, shorn of his legal immunity since he was found not guilty in his criminal trial last year, was yesterday forced to testify in a civil suit brought by the victims' families, who are claiming damages for wrongful death.

In the first hours of verbal jousting with Daniel Petrocelli, the lead lawyer for the families, Mr Simpson was led through a series of incidents in which he was accused of physically abusing his ex-wife and lover of 17 years.

The plaintiffs' case rests - as did the prosecution in his murder trial - on proving the killings were the climax of a violent, passionate relationship. But while he conceded there were often "problems" between them, he denied ever beating, kicking, slapping or even seriously scaring his ex-wife.

Mr Simpson appeared determined to put the best light possible on their quarrels.

Confronted with photographs of her bruised face taken after police were called to their home in January, 1989, Mr Simpson admitted only that he put his wife in a headlock after "she jumped on me" and then shoved her out of their bedroom.

He was "wrongly physical", he said, and felt responsible, but implied that her injuries occurred when she fell. "In releasing her, maybe my hand hit or was on her face," he said. "I certainly did not punch her or slap her."

Mr Petrocelli appeared yesterday to be trying to goad Mr Simpson into a display of his darker side for the jury. He quoted back to him a comment in an early biography when Mr Simpson seemed to boast of being an effective liar.

But the former football legend, whose formidable presence on the field led to several acting roles and a position as the chief spokesman for Hertz, seemed unflappable. If he erred it may have been by seeming too glib.

Asked about an incident in 1993 when he allegedly smashed the windscreen of her car in front of her, he stuck to his account that he was merely tapping the bottom of a baseball bat on the glass. "I broke her windshield, but it is no big deal," he told the court.

After Mr Simpson had been on the stand for several hours Mr Petrocelli raised the stakes. He quoted excerpts from Nicole Simpson's diary, to show a deteriorating relationship in the days before her murder.

After the couple argued over their two children, Mr Simpson sent his ex-wife a letter telling her she could no longer use his address for tax purposes, a manoeuvre that could have forced here to pay thousands of dollars in extra tax.

In the diary, barred from use in the criminal trial, Nicole recorded Mr Simpson telling her: "You've got it coming, I've already talked to my lawyers about this. They'll get you for tax evasion,. bitch, I will see to it, you are not going to have a dime left."

"You said that did you," Mr Petrocelli asked. "Absolutely not," Mr Simpson said. "So everything in the diaries is true, except when Nicole reports what you said to her, and that's a pack of lies, right, right," he asked. "Yes," Mr Simpson said.