Oscar’s mental evaluation starts
Oscar Pistorius was accompanied by five police officers to Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital, west of Pretoria, yesterday and did not mingle with any other patients.
FILE PICTURE: Oscar Pistorius talks on a mobile phone while arriving in a car at the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital on May 26 2014 in Pretoria. A South African judge on May 20, 2014 ordered Oscar Pistorius to undergo up to 30 days of psychiatric tests to establish if he is “criminally responsible” for killing his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day 2013. AFP PHOTO/MUJAHID SAFODIEN
The former athlete arrived at the just before 9am for psychiatric evaluation. Pistorius was ordered by the North Gauteng High Court to undergo psychiatric evaluation to determine whether general anxiety disorder (GAD) had an impact on his actions the night he shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp, his then girlfriend.
The court appointed a team of three psychiatrists and a psychologist to evaluate Pistorius. The panel includes Leon Fine, a specialist psychiatrist in private practice, Herman Pretorius, the head of the psychiatry department at Weskoppies Hospital, and Jonathan Scholtz, who heads the clinical psychology department at the hospital. The third psychiatrist’s name was not announced in court.
Pistorius entered a small building on the grounds, which seemed to be solely for his evaluation.
He will head to Weskoppies before 9am each morning from Monday to Friday and will leave at 4pm for the duration of his assessment.
Forensic psychologist Ivan de Klerk told The Citizen it was very unusual for him to be an out-patient. “Today (yesterday) not much would have happened. He would have met the panel and a working relationship (between them) established,” De Klerk said.
De Klerk said that as it is a forensic observation, none of the sessions will be private. “If he lets anything slip it will be in the records. There is no confidentiality during a forensic observation,” he said. The trial resumes on June 30.
