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The loss of a child is devastating – Barry Roux
The loss of a child is devastating but the High Court in Pretoria should look at the facts to determine the suitable punishment for culpable homicide-convicted Oscar Pistorius, the court heard on Friday.
Defence lawyer Barry Roux at the sentencing hearing of paralympian Oscar Pistorius at the high court in Pretoria, Thursday, 16 October 2014. Picture: Alon Skuy/Times Media Group/Pool
“It is beyond any argument that the loss of a child is beyond any devastation,” Barry Roux, SC for Pistorius said in closing arguments during sentencing procedures.
“It is necessary to carefully look at the facts of the court…to find the suitable punishment…”
Roux said that it was on that basis that the defence would argue in mitigation.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel earlier handed up the State’s heads of arguments.
On September 12, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide on for the Valentines Day 2013, shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse. The court found him not guilty of murdering Steenkamp.
Pistorius shot Steenkamp through the locked door of the toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to emerge and attack him. She was hit in the hip, arm, and head.
Pistorius was found guilty of firing a pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Johannesburg in January 2013. He was found not guilty of shooting through the open sunroof of a car in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012, and of illegal possession of ammunition.
– Sapa
