Oscar Pistorius is suffering from depression, a South African court heard yesterday, as the Paralympic athlete faced a return to jail for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp three years ago.
The double-amputee killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for an intruder when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.
Wearing a dark suit, white shirt and black tie, the 29-year-old “Blade Runner” attended the first day of the hearing at the High Court in Pretoria along with members of his family.
“He displayed signs and reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder and depressive disorder,” psychologist Jonathan Scholtz for the defense said, after recent interviews with Pistorius. “Currently he is not able to testify. His condition is severe.”
In March, his lawyers failed in their legal bid to reverse a Supreme Court of Appeal judgement that upgraded his original conviction from culpable homicide — the equivalent of manslaughter — to murder.
The original trial judge Thokozile Masipa is expected to pass a new sentence after hearing arguments from both prosecution and defense.
The prosecution will be pushing for a tougher penalty.
Pistorius faces a minimum 15-year jail term for murder, but his sentence could be reduced due to time already spent in prison and mitigating factors, including his disability.
Steenkamp’s parents were both in court yesterday and her father Barry might take the witness stand to ask the court to impose a lengthy punishment.
If he does, it would be the first time one of Steenkamp’s parents has testified in the case.
Pistorius was released from jail in October last year to live under house arrest at his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria after serving one year of his five-year sentence for culpable homicide.
If he is sentenced to more than five years this time around, he will have to serve at least two-thirds of the term before he qualifies for parole.
Analysts estimate that he could be sentenced to between eight and 12 years, but the prosecution is pushing for at least 15.
“When it is not premeditated and when a person is a first offender, [murder] carries a minimum of 15 years ... and we have the responsibility to ensure that the provisions of the law are applied,” said the National Prosecution Authority’s spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku.
Since being convicted of murder, Pistorius has been on bail and allowed to leave the house at set times, but not travel further than 20km without permission.
The case — held in the same courtroom as the original trial — was scheduled to last one week, though the sentence could be handed down earlier.
A lawyer close to the case said on condition of anonymity that it might take three days for both sides to present evidence and “the judge might come back to deliver sentence on Friday.”
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