On Valentine’s Day in 2013, Oscar Pistorius killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. We covered the issue a lot last year, but the news about the case faded away after a few months, and the trial in South Africa just began this week. Pistorius, an Olympian known as “Blade Runner” for his blade-like prosthetic legs, has been charged with murder. He says the whole thing was an accident, that he shot repeatedly into his closed bathroom because he thought an intruder was hiding in there. You can see our archived stories here.
Just FYI: I’m not going to do, like, daily coverage of this trial. I’m interested in it and I’m very interested in the verdict, but I’m not going to fight and obsess over every detail of the case. Mostly I don’t want to fight because I made up my mind more than a year ago: I believe that Oscar murdered Reeva and that the murder was the culmination of a fight. I think they were fighting and Reeva, fearing for her safety, locked herself in the bathroom and Oscar shot into the bathroom repeatedly because he’s a violent abuser.
So far in the first days of the trial, a neighbor testified to hearing Reeva screaming and then four shots. Oscar’s lawyer then said that the neighbor couldn’t have heard that because the first shot was to Reeva’s head and she would have been brain-dead and unable to scream. Which means… nothing. If the neighbor heard screaming before the shots, that means they were already fighting before the shots were fired…?
Reeva’s mother appeared on the Today show yesterday. She seems like she’s still in profound shock after losing her daughter.
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I’m so interested to follow how this progresses. There’s a lot of things left to come out (the trajectory of the bullets, his phone records, her phone records..she had two in the bathroom with her, was he or was he not wearing his prosthetics). His account is sketchy at best, and he’s never fully explained why, even with the security record in SA, he felt the need to fire through a locked bathroom door without so much as a warning shot knowing his girlfriend was in the house… then he forgets his phone password so they can’t check it without getting the information from Apple servers.
My head and heart are saying this was intentional as a result of a row.
Maybe he didn’t mean to kill her, just shoot the door down, but sadly I think we will never know, as he won’t ever admit it.
I agree and plus they say he is a hot head. How could he not realise she was actually in the flat/house? Did he get up and go to the door or just shoot from where he was? All very odd/strange. Poor parents but only he really knows what happened.
He knew she was there didn’t he, they went to bed but she got up during the night, he didnt check where she was (although had time to go to balcony to take two fans in, and also to get his gun) and thought the noise in the bathroom was an intruder, was the story he came up with.
It just doesn’t add up.
@Lindy79
Yes he did but who in their right mind (not in his right mind) even if you are fighting would go oh she locked herself in so I will scare her and shoot a few shots?? What a fool. I remember him at the Olympics how he went mental when someone beat him and he wanted them to measure the length of the prostectics etc. screaming like a mad man. Something is off with him I can’t put my finger on it pompous a.. hole. Stories like this never make sense to me… like the honeymoon couple in SA and the wife was murdered..
I think you have hit it on the head.
My guess is they fought.. he lost it (either he already had the gun or he got it once she ran), then he shot through the door to either kill her or to get the door open but if he had it wouldn’t have been pretty anyway, is my thinking.
He also called the security guy for the complex before an ambulance, and managed to put his legs on to carry her downstairs, yet he didn’t think to do this when he thought there was an intruder…the more I read, the more he looks 100% guilty.
I say it does not even matter much.
He fired four shots through a closed door, and these shots killed a person who was not an intruder.
That alone makes it murder in my book – he pulled the trigger, he is responsible.
Legally, it IS murder in SA.
I read this, and it really throws water on his defense. This is not the first witness who heard screams (Michelle Burger), it is from the second witness:
“Another neighbour, Estelle van der Merwe, testified that she heard the couple arguing over an hour before she heard the fatal gunshots in the early hours of last St Valentine’s Day.
Agree as well. I was defending him last year and I still believe his side of the story could be plausible but common sense leads me to believe her murdered her because he could., based in all we know about him. I also think he is going to get away with it. So sad for Reeva.
He is hated in South Africa. I’m not so sure he will get away with it.
Really nice to see that your thinking has evolved!!!
Agreed — he was an abusive POS who murdered her, but he’ll get off. He’s a good-looking, wealthy celebrity. Regardless of the country, they rarely get convicted of murder. I also have read some articles stating that the bench trials in SA tend to very much favor those with “standing,” which he has.
@Mich-Really? I thought the public opinion of him in SA was 50/50?
Agree with you, TG. I think it’s possible that his story is true, but even if it is, it’s still involuntary manslaughter (or negligent homicide? Is that the correct word?) and he should be punished for it. Sad story. He ruined both of their lifes.
@ TOK
No way. His supporters are LOUD but if you follow the comment sections of the trial he is clearly hated by the majority.
http://www.iol.co.za
http://www.mg.co.za
@ Liv
Don’t confuse SA law with American. There is no such thing as ‘involuntary manslaughter because I shot through a locked bathroom door knowing someone was behind it’ in SA.
I’m from Europe. My point is that even if he didn’t know that his girlfriend was in the bathroom, he killed a human being. I don’t know the exact term in english though – is it involuntary manslaughter? And that doesn’t exist in in South Africa? So he’s either guilty and goes to jail or innocent and gets free? Like Zimmerman in the USA? So crazy.
@ Liv – The SA term is ‘culpable homicide’ and (according to Wiki) it is specifically defined as “the unlawful negligent killing of a human being” like driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Shooting a gun through a locked bathroom door knowing there is someone behind does not seem to satisfy the qualification of ‘negligent’. Beyond that, you can only use deadly force in SA if you can prove that your life is in immediate danger.
Yes, sad as it is, there will be no justice for this lovely woman he slaughtered. I think he will get off. I doubt he’s going to be suffering any pangs of guilt either. He’ll be too euphoric that he got away with it and he’s got that young hottie he’s dating now to keep him busy. She’ll be happy too since obviously he’s not going to pull that a second time.
there’s also apparently a police report that says they called the house immediately after a neighbor/witness reported shots fired, and OP was all “everything’s fine…”
I agree with the general theory that he fired on her hiding in the bathroom after a bad fight. I don’t think it was premeditated…that is, I don’t think he had some specific plan to off her that night, but I do believe it was murder, a culmination of a very abusive relationship.
If I didn’t think he was guilty before his “everything’s fine” comment sealed it for me. How is everything fine when you just killed your girlfriend?
@doofus – I am not a legal expert and especially no nothing about SA law, but my understanding is premeditation can be formed in an instant. It does’t have to be something you planned for days or weeks. So if they were arguing and she ran to the bathroom and he grabbed his gun and killed her that can be seen as premeditation. And if you consider that fact that he would have known that she would have been on the toilet since if there was no room for her to move in there he would have known that his bullets were going to hit home.
@Lindy – is the trial all over Sky in Ireland, too? I don’t seem to be able to get away from it. I’m finding it all very depressing. The Sixlets worship(ped?) Oscar and we met him once at a meet. He was superduper nice and friendly to them and they were ecstatic. Not the person I wanted to fall from grace – but I can’t see another common sense narrative than a row gone wrong.
Yep we have it all the time on Sky News too Sixer and most of the other 24 hour news channels but as Sky News is part of most people’s basic tv packages here (we either have UPC or Sky mostly) you really can’t get away from it.
I still cant get over the fact that, after the shooting, instead of calling the police/ambulance like a normal person would, this dude called a realtor agent, his lawyer, his agent, Roto Rooter, Hertz, Dominos, Papa Johns, Ghostbusters, and then on top of that, had his realtor actually call police.
Who in the world does that?
I too found it odd that his first instinct wasn’t to immediately call the police/an ambulance, that coupled with the fact he then “forgot” his phone password so they had to subpoena his records from Apple, it looks very dodgy. I suppose the defense will use the whole “he was in shock, not thinking clearly” tactic.
In answer to your question: No one who accidentally shot someone.
I didn’t realize he says he “forgot” his phone PIN. What a lying sack. I read somewhere (wish I could remember) that his phone shows he was looking at porn that night when she was in the house. Makes a person wonder if that might have been the cause of a fight.
At the very least it shows that his first thought was for himself, how this would appear to others, to the public. At the worst, it makes him look even more guilty.
I think I read somewhere too that his lawyers were arguing that the screaming the neighbors heard was Oscar because he has a high pitched scream and sounds like a girl when he screams. If that’s the best they can come up with, I don’t see a good ending for him.
Wow, such a lame explanation. I really don’t see things ending well for him at all.
Yeah, I read that too, and apparently the court room started laughing as soon as they heard that pitiful explanation for the screams heard, OP comes across as a sociopath to me, complete with fake tears on cue in the courtroom.
The defence has some rather strange explanations. I think I heard an audio clip where his lawyer was trying to pass off a gunshot/bang as the impact from a cricket bat. O.O
His lawyer, Barry Roux, is brilliant and has been picking apart everything the witnesses have been saying in their testimony.
I could very well see him getting off if there is reasonable doubt as to the intention of the murder due to how good his lawyer is.
Well, I hope Gerrie Nel knows what he is doing. He is pretty good himself.
As long as the truth comes up. There are only loosers in this matter, unfortunately. 🙁
I heard the lawyer semi-attacking the witness “ARE YOU SURE THERE WEREN’T GUNSHOTS? ARE YOU SURE IT WAS A WOMAN SCREAMING, AND NOT THE DEFENDANT?” I was SO proud that the witness stuck to her guns and didn’t allow herself to be bullied.
I actually laughed at that. the “He screams like a girl” defense. This is all grasping at straws. The sad thing is it might work.
There are three witnesses now who say they heard the man and woman’s voices fighting before the shots were fired. I think that makes such a difference. The only way his story would be possible is if she was totally silent before the shooting.
Did they have a reason that he would just start randomly screaming? Was he screaming because he was scared of the “intruder”?
Um, that’s their defense? Isn’t the accusation that they were fighting before she got shot? This is baffling that they would even waste their breath on this defense. I question his choice of counsel. Then again, maybe this is all they’ve got in his defense because he is 100% guilty.
Since it’s fallen out of the spot light I kind of forgot about it. Would be interesting to hear any court updates/developments from those keeping up or in SA.
He disgusts me. The end.
I agree with your theory Kaiser, I just hope the POS rots in jail.
Me, too. His story is ridiculous.
Me three.
Call the waaaambulance!
My best wishes for Reeva’s family, I hope the’ll have the justice they need.
I truly can’t watch this scumbag weeping in court and getting away with a clean record. I heard the family is ready to forgive him. I would want to see him rotten in jail not forgive him. I’d put lots of distance between us and him behind bars.
I really don’t understand
That and he is allegedly seeing a 19 year old whose family have embraced him. How true that is, I don’t know but it’s disgusting if it is.
I hope the justice system in South Africa isn’t as blinded by celebrity as it is here in America. Celebrities here seem to carry a ‘get out of jail free’ card with them where ever they go, what ever they do. I believe he’s guilty as sin and acted in the heat of the moment during an argument resulting in her horrific death, but I’m afraid he’ll walk (no pun intended) away free from punishment. I hope I’m wrong and I hope Reeva gets the justice she deserves.
I hope so too. I think the fact that there is no jury gives the best chance of his celebrity status influencing the decision as little as possible. I believe he absolutely murdered her in cold blood and his story is ludicrous but I think if this were left to a jury he would get off. I believe that juries often confuse an alternative narrative, like the one being presented here, no matter how unlikely, with reasonable doubt. Never thought I would say this but thank god there is no jury!
He seems like a major douchebag. I agree with Kaiser he totally shot her. He is kinda their OJ Simpson. He will probably get away with it. 🙁
I think he’s guilty, but this is a mischaracterization of the witness’s testimony. I watched it Monday morning on BBC, and the neighbor testified that she heard the screaming DURING the gunshots, not before, and that the screaming stopped just after the last gunshot.
She said she heard screaming before and during the gun shots
The defense attorney was hammering her so much about hearing the screams during the shooting that I must’ve missed the part about hearing them before. The poor witness seemed fairly distraught.
I know, i felt very sorry for her. I thought she was very strong in holding her ground though, I was impressed with her.
the last one was the one to her head apparently.
I think they’re arguing that the head shot was the first one, hence she was hit first and couldn’t have screamed during or after the shots were fired.
That’s my understanding of their argument to the witness testimony.
Yes the defence were arguing the first shot was to her head meaning she couldn’t have screamed. Apparently there is some dispute as to which shot hit her first though.
How can they tell which shot hit her first? They were all fired at pretty much the same time, right?
The prosecutor told the court that the last shot hit her in the head. I guess we’ll have to wait until the forensic experts’ testimony, but the prosecution’s theory is consistent with what the first witness heard.
I also read reports that said the LAST shot hit her in the head. The witness heard a female voice screaming before she got shot, but she also said she heard it during/after the shooting. The Defense was saying that she couldn’t scream after the last shot because of the shot to her head.
I think what is most important regarding whether it was murder or not was whether there was screaming BEFORE the shots were fired. That blows his defense that he didn’t know who he was shooting at. The screaming after getting shot doesn’t impact whether it was murder or not, IMO.
I seriously doubt they can tell the exact order of all 4 shots in this case.
I’d be willing to believe that the angle of entry would tell you if she was upright or prone … and it seems logical that she was initially upright and then fell down, so that’d give you some kind of order. But knowing for sure that it was the 2nd shot was the one that missed … that doesn’t seem possible. I know there’s a few ways you can tell the exact sequence of injuries (the lines from one fracture won’t cross existing fracture lines; people who are already dead don’t bleed much), but none of them seem to apply here.
However, l’m with Tiffany. The order of shots doesn’t matter, the key point is that she was making enough noise that he should’ve known where she was.
Here’s a source for the fact Berger said before AND during/maybe-slightly-after: “Just after her screams, I heard four shots. Four gun-shots,” she said. “Bang … bang, bang, bang. It was very traumatic for me. You could hear that it was bloodcurdling screams.” After the final shot, the screams “started fading”, she added later. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/03/us-safrica-pistorius-idUSBREA220H620140303
He’s probably guilty of murder, certainly guilty of culpable homicide. But I absolutely hate the fact that people are judging him on misleading/inaccurate reports. It’s totally valid for the defence attorney to try to argue that she couldn’t have been screaming at that stage. But it’s also perfectly valid to assume the witness simply got the order of events slightly confused.
The fact that she heard female screaming is the key: if Reeva was screaming, it makes it even harder to believe Oscar didn’t realise where she was. It’s hard to judge the direction of sound, but if you’re in a bedroom, it should be pretty obvious whether someone is screaming from the bed or from the en-suite bathroom. You don’t need to twist the story to make it more damaging.
On a different note: How bad was the initial police investigation!? This couple didn’t testify in the pre-trial. “We went away during the pre-trial, but then heard on the radio of a witness living 600m from his house. We realised we lived much closer than that. We then realised how important our testimony would be. We then tried to find out what to do, we are not media people.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/oscar-pistorius/10674790/Oscar-Pistorius-murder-trial-as-it-happened.html How/why did the police not interview them in the first place? It shouldn’t be up to them to realise they should go make a statement, the police should’ve been doorknocking the entire area, looking for witnesses.
Its so disappointing when people you admire turn out to be unworthy. I reserved judgment for a long time, but given all the information we now know, it seems pretty clear this was a domestic dispute with a tragic end. And Reeva apparently did so much work with domestic violence issues, too..
Text book 2nd degree murder. Your actions caused the death of another. Pre-meditated will be the stick that hangs the jury. I doubt he planned killing her, he is a hot headed douchbag who is trigger happy. He had this history & unfortunately it will probably help him get off.
She seemed like a v v lovely person w/the goal to help empower women. Clearly she was a beauty both inside & out & her death is a tragic loss.
I think you are confusing South African law with Floridian law.
@Mich – there was another case in SA where a former rugby player shot and killed his daughter as she was driving out of the driveway. I believe his story was that he woke up or heard a noise and assumed someone was stealing her car without even checking to see of she was in her room. I don’t think he was convicted of it because the judge said he (the father) had suffered enough. So this is very similar to Oscar’s story and in many ways more unbelievable that he would just jump to conclusions like that. It seems some wealthy South Africans have hair triggers when it comes to possible robbery. Not to say we don’t have those folks over here but from what I read after this case there is a lot of violence and wealthy people have to protect themselves and we know that Oscar was practically salivating at the mouth hoping for an opportunity to shoot someone dead. Remember his tweets about hearin a mouse in his house so he grabbed his fun to go kill someone and it turned out to be the housekeeper? She is lucky she isn’t dead.
I was there during the rugby player incident and it was truly a case of mistaken identity. She was sneaking out and he thought his car was being stolen. Even if it was a robber, the argument was that he had no right to use deadly force because his life wasn’t in danger. I don’t see a comparison between killing your own daughter though and killing a girlfriend in a rage.
Man, you are so right about the housekeeper. There was another story when a journalist was with him and he grabbed his gun because he thought he heard a noise and it was the washing machine.
There is no jury trial, it’s a bench trial. There’s also no premeditation in SA murder charges. Even a totally accidental killing is still murder.
From what I understand the way the justice system works over there ‘premeditated’ would cover him getting his gun, following her in the bathroom and shooting her to the door. It’s about the intent, not the planning.
It doesn’t matter if he decided to shoot her 2 mns before. If he grabbed the gun with the intent of killing her then it would be deemed premeditated.
I also believe if the judge doesn’t agree with the charge she has the scope to change it to manslaughter and still convict him and jail him.
He wouldn’t just walk.
That’s how the BBC was explaining it, I’m sure someone can confirm?
You can not use deadly force in South Africa unless you can prove that you are in immediate danger. Shooting through a locked bathroom door does not meet that standard.
That’s my thinking. I totally understand that home security in SA is an main factor in his defense and many people have firearms in their homes.
My main issue is that he fired through a locked door and therefore was in no immediate danger. The intruder wasn’t in his room, wasn’t charging at him. Intruders tend not to corner themselves into a bathroom with only one entry/exit point, that and he apparently gave no warning before firing.
Maum, I have heard that South Africa doesn’t have a “manslaughter” charge.
Apparently the premediation element relates to sentancing only, in that if they don’t prove premeditation it doesn’t mean they can’t find him guilty of murder. If the premeditation is proved then it will lead to a longer sentance. That’s what I understood anyway.
I’m looking forward to hearing the evidence because as tragic and weird as this whole thing is, I still believe he thought it was an intruder. I also think these witnesses are full of sh-t. They live something like 170 meters for OP’s house. That’s over 550 feet. ???? How could they possibly give credible testimony?
lol
I know it’s pointless to argue, but I just don’t see how that could possibly be true. You’re asleep in bed. Your boyfriend is in the bed with you. You hear a noise and think it’s an intruder. (What noise? What could she have possibly been doing that made so much noise that it woke him up on another floor and made him assume it was someone breaking into his house?) won’t you turn to the boyfriend and say did you hear that? And notice he wasn’t there? So you run downstairs and see a locked bathroom door and you don’t call out your boyfriend’s name? Or make sure it isn’t him? You just start firing a deadly weapon into the door? That makes absolutely no sense to me.
I agree it’s pointless to argue, but based on what he swore to in his affidavit…I believe it’s possible. I’m looking forward to the trial unfolding. Should be interesting.
Exactly. I asked my husband as I felt from a woman’s perspective my first thing would be to wake him up as he’s a much more imposing figure than me and he said the first thing he would do is check am I there, is the noise me/ am I ok.
(was she not shot in the bathroom on the same level as the bedroom? He says he didn’t hear her as he was outside getting the fans in, which I find highly suspect, that he didn’t hear her walking and close/lock the door behind her?)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26417240#ns-panel__section-6
@Lindy79
Oh, sorry, I had the bathroom confused with a story I know from real life. You’re correct. But that makes it even worse. It was THEIR bathroom. And he didn’t check to be sure it wasn’t her?
I agree, the first thing you would do, I think, is make sure your loved one was ok and not about to be shot, or in danger from the intruder. I just don’t buy his version.
OP’s defence is that, because South Africa has such a high crime rate and violent home invasions are so common, he was understandably and justifiably terrified when he heard a noise in his home and acted out of sheer terror. Of couse, South Africa’s crime rate is also very, very convenient for someone who is trying to cover up a murder.
It was the middle of the night, in a very quiet semi-rural area. Sound travels quite far in those circumstances. Besides, everybody’s windows were open because it was hot outside.
1.) I think that sound can absolutely travel that far, especially screams.
2.) There isn’t just one witness that heard her screaming before the shots fired. The woman’s husband also heard it, as did another neighbor who testified on the 2nd day (I believe). So that makes 3 people that heard a man and a woman arguing and shouting before the gun shots. That is pretty substantial to me, but I do look forward to hearing all fo the evidence.
She would have screamed while she was locked in the bathroom, he would have heard it was a woman and it should have occurred to him then that it could have been or was Reeva, even if you disregard everything else up until that point and even taking into account that he’s an extremely paranoid person, there’s just no way he wouldn’t have heard a woman’s screams before he shot. His story is just too unbelievable and even if it was a home invader you don’t just blow the persons head off, so it’s still murder regardless of who he was trying to kill. The end. Hope they lock him up forever.
We used to live in an apartment where the neighbour’s noise would bounce off a wall 75 m away, through trees and back into our apartment. When it was night time and they were just having a party, we would hear them pretty clearly, and that was just loud talking, not screaming. We ended up moving, it was so annoying.
Oh, and I’m talking about a neighbour on the other side of the apartment complex (we were at opposite ends, though facing the same direction), not our immediate neighbours.
Rich people rarely go to prison for murder, so I’m not optimistic this abusive POS will, especially since SA just has bench trials. I hope he’s the exception. His “so sad” antics yesterday were disgusting.
The mother does still look quite stunned, but she presents extremely well; she´s poised and articulate. Such a shocking, terrible thing to happen to a family.
Is the trial on TV in the US? I checked HLN, CNN, and TruTV and didn’t see it.
SA does have TV trials the same way America does and several of the witnesses have asked that their images not be used. The trial actually stopped for a while yesterday because a photo of one of the witnesses appeared in the press – it was pulled from her work website and the judge said that didn’t matter, it was not to be used.
The trial is running on ESPN3, which I believe is an internet-only network.
To me all the evidence that he’s lying boils down to one thing: the bathroom door was locked. If his story was that she got up in the night to use the bathroom, the door would not have been locked. It was locked because she was running from him in fear.
I don’t know that I agree that a locked bathroom door proves anything. I routinely lock the bathroom door as the only female in a house full of guys. I don’t want anyone walking in on me when I’m doing my business. I’m surely not the only one who locks a bathroom door by habit. I think the guy is guilty, but I don’t necessarily think locking the bathroom door is the deciding point.
What Zwella said. Probably guilty, but locking the bathroom door isn’t odd. I do it automatically – even when I lived alone. The bathroom door in my childhood home was hung badly and would swing open if not latched shut. Locking the door behind myself is simply habit.
While I lock the bathroom door at parents house or home alone, I never lock it when it’s just me and hubby, simply closing the door is enough for him to know not to come in lol.
I am captivated by this tragic story. Keep up the coverage.
Here in South Africa I would say that most people are of the opinion that Oscar will walk. It’s most definitely because of his family’s money and influence.
They really haven’t focused on Oscar and Reeva’s relationship at all which I find strange. Surely it wasnt their first fight that night? I just think it’s weird that they are picking apart whether Oscar screams like a girl or not and not if or when he has been abusive/agressive in previous relationships or with Reeva.
Granted I’ve been away from home (Cape Town) for a few months but I never got the impression that people thought he would walk. What’s changed?
The trial has just begun. There are over 100 witnesses to be called – I’m sure (I hope!) that the prosecutor will call witnesses who will testify not only about their relationship but also OP’s previous relationships with women.
There’s been a horrible, horrible ad in the UK by a betting firm. They ran an image of him stylised to look like an Oscar statuette, saying “your money back if he walks!” offering odds on him being found guilty of premeditated murder. No mention of Reeva at all – just sniggering over the whole thing. It’s caused a bit of a storm and a petition demanding they pull the ads and donate money to a domestic violence charity is gaining traction (more than 100,000 signatures in the first day, when there are only 50 million Brits in total) but it’s so depressing, in what it says about British attitudes to domestic violence. They think, possibly correctly, that they will attract new customers with this attitude.
http://www.change.org/petitions/patrick-kennedy-paddy-power-please-remove-your-offensive-betting-on-the-outcome-of-the-oscar-pistorius-trial-and-donate-any-profits-so-far-to-a-women-s-charity-fighting-violence-against-women?share_id=hiiZXzIriB&utm_campaign=share_button_action_box&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition
Thanks for posting the link. Just signed.
Paddy Power is well known for stunt betting like this. They do it because they think the publicity surrounding the CONTROVERSY will get their name out there. It has NOTHING whatsoever to say about British attitudes to DV generally, thankyouverymuch.
Exactly. All it shows is tasteless opportunism by a betting company, not British (or any countries) attitudes towards domestic violence.
I am British too, and we have one of the worst rates of DV in Europe: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/mar/05/violence-against-women-european-union-physical-sexual-abuse More than 10,000 women are on the police systems as being at serious risk of murder at the hands of a partner at any one time, and it is widely acknowledged that it’s an extremely under-reported problem: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/26/domestic-violence-risk-death-injury-police and sentencing attitudes to domestic abuse crimes (especially amongst magistrates) are concerningly lenient: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/05/domestic-violence-laws-abusers-justice
Not disagreeing that it shows tasteless opportunism, and not disagreeing that SA has an even worse problem with violence in general, and gendered violence in particular. But the fact is, we do have serious issues in this area, and if you don’t believe me, then just contact Women’s Aid and ask.
On the plus side, the response to this (and the Advertising Standards Authority having banned the ads) shows many, many more Brits are appalled than amused. As I said, more than 100,000 people signed that petition in the first day, and the ASA said they got more complaints in that one day than any other ad has attracted across an entire run before. Which also speaks volumes about British attitudes. But yes, we do have a serious problem. And things such as the Everyday Sexism Project do rather highlight why this “jokey” ad was commissioned and run to begin with, with no apparent understanding by either their media firm or their own execs that it was way, way over their usual “edgy” advertising brief.
What of waste – two beautiful, successful people. Regardless of what the truth is I feel really sad about everything
I agree. I’m going to withhold judgement. Innocent until proven guilty. Why is it ppl want to think the worst without knowing all the facts? I feel sorry for them both.
the worst of all is so often after the trial is over, we still are not sure whether the person is guilty or not. Lots of innocent people get thrown behind bars, lots of guilty people walking away free.
Innocent? How is he innocent? Do you think someone else might have fired the gun that killed her?
Where did I say HE was ‘innocent’?
Be careful about passing judgements. You never know what life has in store for you.
poor little *tink *tink
I would like an explanation of why there was blood on the cricket bat he said he used to break down the door & the autopsy shows that Reeva had a fractured skull. They could explain away the fractured skull from the bullet that hit her head. The blood could be explained that he used the bat to breake down the door and the bat got blood on it when he put it down to carry her out.
I do not beleive this theory at all. I think he was in a rage, hit her with it, she ran to the bathroom and locked herself in and he fired through the door in anger killing her. I’ve been following this quite closely and in my hearrt I do not beleive this was accidental.
You have nailed it.
No one should allow themselves to get side-tracked by Oscar’s repulsive, absurd lies.
Also, there is a pattern to his abusive behaviour. One of his ex-girlfriend’s mothers stated she was glad that her daughter was free of his “clutches”. I don’t understand how you could not notice your partner is not in bed beside you.
I think he is a straight up murderer and pray that people see past his “celebrity status” and that Reeva and her family receive justice.
There is no need to try to figure out the rationale for his lies. There is no rationale. He just lies as a means to answer a question that is put to him. He cares not that the lie makes ZERO sense. He is guilty and has no means by which to rationalize his crime and the events that led up to it — so he doesn’t even try. Why didn’t you check that your GF might be in the bathroom before shooting, Oscar? Oh, I thought she was on the balcony. See? It makes no f*cking sense, so there’s no point in trying to apply sense to it. It’s for the courts to ultimately declare him full of shit and send him packing to the clink.
The problem with the “he hit her with the cricket bat” theory is that you can very easily tell the difference between a blunt force fracture and one caused by a bullet. (And you can tell if there was one blow or two.) If she had a blunt force skull fracture the prosecution would’ve led with that. It would seal their case, they’d be shouting it from the rooftops.
The only way the theory works is if you assume the guy who did the autopsy was completely and utterly incompetent.
(Again, not saying he’s innocent, just trying to make sure everyone gets the facts straight.)
He needs to go have a seat in prison right now and just rot in there.
Killer.
He’s guilty as sin. Nothing adds up. His story is full of lies and one of the worse cases of lying in a true crime case I’ve ever encountered. Ib fact I can’t remember a case with this amount of bald-faced, irrational lying. Examples: He didn’t call emergency because he forgot the pass code for his smartphone lock. The neighbors didn’t hear Reeva screaming — that was just Oscar sounding like a high-pitched female. He didn’t bother to check if she was in the bathroom because he thought she was on the balcony — in the middle of the night, for no reason — he thought she was on the balcony. The fact that he claims to REALLY have thought an intruder was in the bathroom rather than his girlfriend is the worst and most irrational lie of all.
The list of his irrational, feed-them-crap-and-grin-while-they-eat-it lies goes on and on.
He doesn’t even lie to try to win credibility. He lies just to answer a question. He doesn’t give it any thought — he just responds with a lie. And do you know why? Because he think he’s going to get off, the filthy animal.
And that cricket bat theory–that neighbours would hear the sound of a cricket bat cracking a door, but not the sound of the gun firing four times just beforehand? Ridiculous.
No one has mentioned that when she was shot she was dressed.
Why was she wearing clothes if he claims they were in bed?
Sounds like they may have been fighting, which the neighbors heard, and she ended up cowering in the bathroom.
He flipped out and shot through the door.
His story makes no sense just by looking at the floorplan and the forensic stuff like angle of the bullets, etc., I think go against him.
I agree with you totally – I’m glad you brought up tjhe fact that she was wearing street clothes, which wouldn’t make sense if she had just gotten up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
One other thing about the floor plan – the bathroom is not ensuite but instead is at the end of an ensuite corridor. The bedroom door is a lot closer than the bathroom. If OP is telling the truth and he became terrified when he heard a noise in the bathroom, thinking it was an intruder, why not leave through the bedroom door and go to a safe place where he could call for help? Why go charging down the corridor to the bathroom in the dark, not knowing how many intruders there were or whether or not they were armed?
I remember someone saying at the time the murder happened that, sarcastically, burglars always run to people’s bathrooms because there’s so many valuables there. Also, I thought he said that he believed Reeva was still in bed, and that he was saying to her that there was someone in the house, but that she didn’t respond. I don’t know why he didn’t reach over to try to shake her awake. Oh, that’s right, he knew exactly who was in the bathroom.
He was an irresponsible, weak man in love with guns and had several really dangerous public “accidents”, one in a restaurant where he came close to shooting another patron – and begged a friend to take the blame. This is a man who also threatened former girlfriends over a year after he was dumped, threatened men who dated them with being shot by him. He’s got real control issues, abandonment issues and is known to be a violent man. After the shooting he told the security at his compound that everything was fine, and called a friend and his uncle before calling for – not the paramedics but a private ambulance. This was done to cover up what had happened if Reeva had lived, he wanted to be able to pay her off. He’s truly a horrible little man who wants to use his disability when it’s convenient, but I believe they had been fighting, fought that night and she told him she was leaving and she was threatened, she went into the bathroom because she was afraid of him and he was so angry he shot her four times. One of her wounds was her right middle finger was shot off – meaning she had her hands around her arms while she was crouching on or behind the toilet when he started shooting her. Plus she was hit in the hip first, not the head and Pistorious was told to move the body downstairs to screw up the crime scene by either his friend or uncle. Pistorious really believed he was going to get away with killing her. He really believed he was going to walk away.
I really really hope he goes to jail. If not, I really really hope he is booed and looked at askance for every single public appearance for the rest of his life. The idiots who still want to date him should read up on the women who feel they can redeem these abusers and are later abused or murdered for their troubles.
He can get off and live just fine. Look at OJ Simpson, that devil. Slaughtered two innocent people in cold blood — the mother of his children while his children slept upstairs!! What an animal. Worse than an animal. And he got off and was living quite well until he went to jail for something else. Or look at Roman Polanski, who plied a teenager with drink and drugs, and then raped and sodomized her while she went into respiratory failure and almost died. He’s been living quite well as we know! And R. Kelly, another beast — abuser and defiler of young girls. He’s doing super, too. Oh yes, Oscar can get off for murder and most people will turn a blind eye. Because money. Because fame. That’s all it takes.
Guilty, guilty. guilty, of premeditated murder. If he cried in court, he will continue to do so if he thinks it will get him off. He’s lying, he shot her because he was angry and a hot head. When the security personnel called him to see if things were alright, he said yes, AFTER he shot her. People, he’s a cold blooded killer, but, yes, they have to go through the trial. He’s going to fake lots of emotion because one thing he doesn’t want to do is spend years behind bars. Therefore, he will do anything to avoid that.
Now he’s crying? Because he wasn’t when he was led out of the house a couple of hours after murdering her, at which point an innocent person would still have been a wreck over accidentally killing someone they loved. He has never once looked contrite; tears are a sign of fear of prison. He need not fret, he’ll get off just like OJ, and so many other rich with their expensive as snake oil lawyers while those of us who know the difference between right and wrong have to remain indignant over another injustice of violence against a woman. Women need to start live-casting their domestic arguments so there’s proof out there later. Sounds like a great website idea.
This is so like O J Simpson murder trial. I bet he goes free like he did and they are both as guilty as sin.
I wonder how he came up with the intruder defense so fast if it isn’t real? I don’t know what to believe at this point.
OMG! I just read on NBC news that during cross examination, the defense read aloud the phone number of one of the witnesses. He has since been deluged with texts and calls from around the world harassing him!
That is sooooo sketchy!
Maybe he would get away like George Zimmerman or Struass khan who did not even get charged with rape but would rather pay the victim off than clear his name in court. O.j Simpson was not the only injustice
After all his defence, like Zimmerman and Khan was, “the black man/woman made me do it.”