, Carl Pistorius charged with culpable homicide
, Charge is for the alleged accidental death of a female motorcyclist
, He appeared in court just two days before his brother's bail hearing
, The trial is set to begin at the end of March
, Charge is for the alleged accidental death of a female motorcyclist
, He appeared in court just two days before his brother's bail hearing
, The trial is set to begin at the end of March
The brother of Oscar Pistorius is facing charges over the
death of a woman in a car crash in 2010.
Carl Pistorius, who was present in court over the past week
to support Oscar, is charged with culpable homicide over the alleged accidental
death of a female motorcyclist.
His lawyer, Kenny Oldwage, who also represents Oscar
Pistorius, has confirmed the charges. Carl Pistorius appeared in court just two
days before his brother's bail hearing last week.
In Britain
the equivalent charge to culpable homicide is manslaughter. Carl Pistorius'
trial is set to begin at the end of March.
Mr Oldwage is a highly-respected advocate in South Africa
who successfully defended Sizwe Mankazana, who was charged with culpable
homicide, reckless and negligent driving, and driving under the influence of
alcohol after he lost control of his vehicle, killing Nelson Mandela's
13-year-old great-grandchild Zenani in 2010.
It has also emerged that Oscar Pistorius sported a
mysterious black eye in a video filmed a month ago for a charity campaign.
The Paralympian lent his support to a South African
campaign for gay and lesbian youth. But charity bosses were surprised when he
turned up for filming with a black eye.
In the video message recorded to raise awareness for the It
Gets Better campaign in South
Africa, Oscar instructed young people who
were being bullied about their sexuality to 'not retaliate'.
An It Gets Better charity source told the Sunday Mirror:
'Oscar turned up on the day of filming with a very angry looking black eye.
'Oscar was keen for the filming to still go ahead and didn’t
seem to mind too much. Although eyebrows were raised, Oscar wasn’t forthcoming
on how he managed to get the injury.'
Oscar Pistorius, meanwhile, spent Saturday at his uncle's
home in an affluent suburb of Pretoria,
the South African capital, after a judge released him on bail on Friday.
While on bail, he is expected to take delivery of a £200,000
supercar. He ordered the 204mph 3.8-liter McLaren MP4-12C Spider last month as
a treat to reward himself for a successful year, The Sun reported today.
Oscar Pistorius has been charged with premeditated murder in
the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of
Valentine's Day.
But the athlete denies murder, saying he killed her
accidentally. He says he opened fire after mistaking Miss Steenkamp for an
intruder in his home.
Today, it emerged police have told her family that Pistorius
crushed his girlfriend’s skull with a cricket bat before shooting her dead.
Details of the post-mortem examination of South African
model Steenkamp were withheld from last week’s bail application hearing.
But grieving relatives who saw her body before Tuesday’s
cremation in Port Elizabeth
described horrific injuries from the cricket bat, and entry wounds from 9mm
bullets fired by Pistorius.
They were also briefed about the model’s death by police and
lawyers from the state prosecutor’s office.
In a sworn affidavit read to the bail hearing in Pretoria
magistrates’ court last week, Pistorius claimed that he used the bat to break
down the toilet door after the shooting, saying he had not realised his
girlfriend was in the bathroom.
The bloodstained bat, which is currently being examined by a
police forensics team, will be key evidence when Pistorius goes on trial for
premeditated murder.
The ‘Blade Runner’ – who has previously boasted about having
a cricket bat, pistol and machine gun at home to defend himself against intruders
– claims the bat became blood-spattered at the scene.
Last week the prosecution did not mention any details about
the bat and the role they believe it played in Reeva’s death, opting not to
disclose their case against Pistorius. But to secure bail, Pistorius’s legal
team had to detail his defence, which included why he had a blood-spattered
cricket bat in his possession on the fatal night.
The athlete claims that during the night he heard a noise in
the bathroom and feared it was an intruder. Pistorius, 26, said he felt
‘vulnerable’ without his prosthetic legs, so he got a gun from under his bed
and fired through the bathroom door, shouting at the ‘intruder’ to get out of
the house and for Reeva to call the police.
At that point Pistorius thought she was still in bed.
Pistorius described his ‘horror and fear’ as he realised
Reeva was not in the bed, and said he used the bat to break down the toilet
door to find Reeva slumped inside the cubicle.
He said he called paramedics and then carried Reeva, 29,
downstairs, trying to revive her, but she died in his arms.
Yesterday, Reeva’s father Barry Steenkamp said that the
athlete would have to ‘live with his
conscience’ if he is lying about how he killed her.
He told Afrikaans-language newspaper Beeld: ‘It doesn’t
matter how much money he has and how good his team of lawyers is, he must be
able to live with his conscience if he allows his team of lawyers to lie on his
behalf.
‘He will have to live with his conscience. But if he speaks
the truth, I can perhaps someday forgive him. If it does not happen as he tells
it, he must suffer.’
In another interview, Reeva’s mother June said:
‘Everything has been taken away from me
in such a terrible way. The only thing that matters now is the truth.’
Pistorius’s family believe him to be innocent, with his father Henke saying
he had ‘zero doubt’ that Reeva’s death was a tragic accident. In an earlier
interview, Henke said: ‘When you are a sportsman, you act even more on instinct. It’s instinct, things happen and
that’s what you do.
‘When you wake up in the middle of the night, and crime is
so endemic in South Africa,
what do you do if somebody is in the house? Do you think it’s one of your family? No, of course you don’t.’
In a statement yesterday Pistorius’s family said: ‘Oscar
will never be the same ... having to live with the knowledge he caused the
death of the woman he loved, and that he can never undo the immense pain and
loss this has caused Reeva’s family and friends.’
Having been released from bail after the gruelling four-day
hearing, Pistorius was yesterday spending the day with his family at a secret
address in Pretoria
provided by his legal team.
His uncle Arnold Pistorius said: ‘We are convinced Oscar’s
version of what happened that terrible night will prove to be true.’
Today, if his athletics coach Ampie Louw has his way,
Pistorius could be back in training at the track at the University of Pretoria.
He was last there earlier this month with Reeva, who watched admiringly as he
was put through his paces.
Friends have spoken of the need for a suicide watch on the
sportsman as he spends the next four months preparing for his court appearance
on June 4.
Meanwhile, South
Africa’s top detective Lieutenant General
Vinesh Moonoo is taking over the role of chief investigator in the case, after
Hilton Botha stepped down from the post.
Detective Botha resigned after seven charges of attempted
murder against him were reinstated. He and three other officers shot at a
minibus of escaping murder suspects in 2009.
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