pistororious trial live, page-2

The damning evidence to put Pistorious behind bars:

Pistorius 'DID beat model girlfriend with a cricket bat' before he shot her, police tell horrified family - and relatives have seen her extensive head injuries
Reeva Steenkamp's skull crushed during attack, South African police say
Grieving relatives who saw body before cremation described horrific injuries
Pistorius told bail hearing he used bat to break down toilet door
Currently being examined by forensic team for evidence


By Barbara Jones

Published: 22:49 GMT, 23 February 2013 | Updated: 10:30 GMT, 26 February 2013



Vital new evidence: Police claim that Pistorius attacked Reeva with the cricket bat

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Vital new evidence: Police claim that Pistorius attacked Reeva with the cricket bat

Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius crushed his girlfriend’s skull with a cricket bat before shooting her dead, police have told her family.

Details of the post-mortem examination of South African model Reeva 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.




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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.




Paralympian Oscar Pistorius is at home after being granted bail following a gruelling four-day hearing

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Paralympian Oscar Pistorius is at home after being granted bail following a gruelling four-day hearing




graphic

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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.’


Reeva Steenkamp's father, Barry Steenkamp, said Pistorius 'will have to live with his conscience' if he turns out to be lying about her death

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Reeva Steenkamp's father, Barry Steenkamp, said Pistorius 'will have to live with his conscience' if he turns out to be lying about her death

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.