Oscar Pistorius: A spectacular fall from grace
Eighteen months after he shot dead his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, paralympian and former South African hero Oscar Pistorius will this week learn if he’s convinced a judge of his innocence.
They’d been a couple for just a few months. They’d had their arguments - mostly over his controlling nature - but on Valentine’s Day she’d planned to give him a card, declaring for the first time that she loved him.
She never got that chance. In the early hours of February 14, 2013, he shot her four times through the bathroom door of his Pretoria home. Reeva Steenkamp, 29, died instantly from her injuries.
In London, just six months earlier Pistorius had been an international inspiration, known as the Blade Runner - the first double amputee to compete at the Olympics. But the athlete's fall from grace was spectacular and unprecedented. A day after the tragic shooting, he was charged with murder.
At his bail hearing shortly afterwards, the track star tendered a statement explaining what he claimed happened that night – that he mistook Reeva for an intruder and believed he was under threat. But police argued it was pre-meditated murder, and he shot Reeva in the middle of an argument.
In March this year, Oscar Pistorius went on trial before Judge Thokozile Masipa after South Africa abolished jury trials during the apartheid era in 1969.
The trial was originally scheduled for just three weeks, but continued until August, delayed by long cross examinations of the dozens of witnesses, and a surprise 30-day psychiatric evaluation of the defendant.
Experts decided Pistorius was not suffering a mental illness the night of the shooting, but his psychiatric health was just one of many areas subjected to brutal analysis during the trial.
State Prosecutor Gerrie Nel was unrelenting when Pistorius took the stand, painting a picture of the athlete as a self-centred man who refused to take responsibility for his actions. Known as the Bulldog, he sensationally tried to force the athlete to look at a close up photograph of Reeva Steenkamp’s bloodied body.
Witnesses spoke of a young man obsessed with fast cars and guns, who’d planned to buy several more firearms just before the shooting. He vowed during the trial that he’ll never touch a gun again.
Last month, both sides presented their closing arguments. The Prosecution says he’s guilty of murder, even if the judge accepts Pistorius thought his girlfriend was an intruder, simply because he knew someone was behind the door.
The defence though says the runner acted in haste when he heard a noise inside the toilet, firing his weapon before he’d realised what happened.
Judge Masipa will begin her verdict on Thursday and is likely to take two days to outline the evidence presented during the trial before she reaches her conclusion. If found guilty of pre-meditated murder, Pistorius could face a life-sentence, which in practice is 25 years in South Africa. However, any sentence could still be weeks away.
The athlete’s uncle, Arnold Pistorius, stunned journalists at the end of the closing arguments by speculating about his nephew’s return to competition for the Rio Olympic Games.
Even if he is cleared of all charges, he has lost the adulation he once took for granted. Many South Africans feel personally betrayed and are now deeply suspicious of the man who once generated so much national pride.
Regardless of this week’s verdict, Oscar Pistorius will never again live the life he had.
