Oscar gets hug outside court
Murder-accused Oscar Pistorius was hugged by a woman as he entered the High Court in Pretoria on Monday morning.
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius arrives for his trial at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria last Friday. As the defence opens its case, the 27-year-old track star will give his first account of why he shot dead his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013. Picture: AFP/Muhajid Safodien/Pool.
Members of a Facebook group, mainly women, set up in support of the paralympian, waited on the pavement with white balloons for him to arrive.
When he stepped out of a silver Land Rover to walk the gauntlet of reporters and onlookers, the photographers shouted for the supporters to get their white balloons out of their shots.
Then a woman ran up to him and threw her arms around him. There were shouts of “we love you Oscar, we are here for you”.
Pistorius stood frozen for several seconds until his security detail pried her off him. There was applause as Pistorius’s lawyers, including Barry Roux, SC, arrived.
A woman in a red jersey stood clutching a CD with his face on the cover, a book with the title “God se Liefdesbriewe aan Jou” (God’s love letters to you) and a small trophy with the word Oscar on the base.
When Pistorius arrived inside court GD he sat quietly by himself until he was joined by his sister Aimee. Monday is expected to see prosecutor Gerrie Nel continue his cross-examination of the athlete who took the stand last Monday.
Pistorius is accused of the murder of Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse on February 14 last year. He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to come out and attack him.
He is also charged with three contraventions of the Firearms Control Act, one of illegal possession of ammunition and two of discharging a firearm in public.
He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.
On September 30, 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
– Sapa
