The family of Oscar Pistorius have called for an end to “public commentary” on his murder trial as he prepares for his biggest and most nerve-racking day in the world spotlight, dwarfing any of his star turns on the track.
Competition for gold, silver or bronze medals will be rendered trivial when the double-amputee athlete known as the “Blade Runner” enters court to a barrage of clicking cameras today.
Pistorius is standing trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, 29, at his luxury home in Pretoria, South Africa, on Valentine’s Day last year. He claims her death was an accident.
Along with the intense legal tussle, Pistorius also faces the extraordinary mental pressure of a trial in the court of public opinion, thanks to intense scrutiny by international newspapers, and live television and radio broadcasts of proceedings. South Africa will even have a 24-hour TV channel devoted to coverage of, and commentary on, the trial.
Even if the Paralympic champion is found not guilty, his reputation will never be the same again as no stone of his personal life will be left unturned. A foretaste came on Saturday when Britain’s Sun newspaper reported that Pistorius, 27, had a new girlfriend, Leah Skye, a 19-year-old student paramedic, labeled “Blade Stunner” by the paper.
A source close to the story said that the couple had in fact already separated, coincidentally on Valentine’s Day.
Pistorius’ family declined to comment.
“With less than two days before the commencement of Oscar’s criminal trial, the family, as well as the legal team, will not be distracted by extraneous issues that have no bearing on, or relevance to, the legal process that must now be allowed to unfold,” the athlete’s uncle, Arnold Pistorius, said. “We will not be commenting on any media reports, nor will we be engaging the press on any issues that belong in court. The time for public commentary is over. The focus is now entirely on a very serious trial that is set to start this Monday. We love Oscar and believe in him, and will be standing by him throughout the coming trial.”
The state has 107 witnesses for the trial, including Pistorius’ ex-girlfriends Melissa Rom and Samantha Taylor. Erin Stear, who has denied reports she had an affair with Pistorius, is also taking the stand. In addition, the court is to hear from former soccer player Mark Batchelor, who has claimed that Pistorius threatened to “break my legs” because he was a close friend of Steenkamp.
Prosecutors are expected to build an unflattering portrait of the accused as reckless, hot-headed and obsessed with guns, every detail of which will be broadcast to the world and lapped up by pundits.
The court will hear how, in one incident, Pistorius accidentally discharged a pistol under the table in a Johannesburg restaurant. In another, he put a bullet, in a fit of rage, through the sunroof of a previous girlfriend’s car.
Shortly after Steenkamp’s death, Nike had to scrap an advertisement that showed Pistorius bursting out of the starting blocks beneath the slogan: “I am the bullet in the chamber.”
Today he will face Steenkamp’s mother, June, for the first time. She has already made her feelings clear in a TV interview last year, recalling an incident in which Steenkamp telephoned her from Pistorius’ car.
“She was afraid,” June Steenkamp said. “She was so afraid. She said: ‘Mummy, I’m in the car with Oscar and he’s driving like a lunatic. Like a lunatic.’ So I said, will you just give him the phone? She gave the phone to Oscar straight away and I said if you hurt my baby, I will have you wiped out.”
Last month, Pistorius reached an out-of-court settlement over an assault case in which he was accused of injuring a female guest at a party at his house. In 2009, he crashed his speedboat into a pier, breaking his jaw and several ribs, and damaging an eye socket. When he came out of a three-day coma, he had 180 stitches in his face.
The prosecution is likely to argue that Pistorius and Steenkamp argued on the night that he fired four rounds from a 9mm pistol through a locked toilet door, hitting her in the head, arm and hip. They will call on the testimony of neighbors, who claim to have heard shouts and screams coming from the house.
The couple’s mobile phone records could also offer evidence of a fight.
Steenkamp is said to have had her phone with her in the toilet when she was shot; unusual in the early hours of the morning. Police have been trying to get access to Pistorius’ iPhone, which might contain evidence of a fight in the form of text messages.
South Africa’s Times newspaper recently reported that Pistorius was looking at pornography on the night of Steenkamp’s death.
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