Reeva Steenkamp’s friend sheds light on Pistorius’ murder verdict

In September 2014, Pistorius, 29, was convicted of manslaughter, or culpable homicide, for the shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14, 2013.

Earlier in October, the double-amputee athlete was released on parole and placed under house arrest after serving less than a year in prison.

“He faces a minimum of 15 years”.

Pistorius, a six-time Paralympic gold medallist whose legs were amputated below the knee as a baby, made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in 2012, running on prosthetic “blades”. He said he thought Ms. Steenkamp was still in his bedroom at the time.

Anneliese Burgess, the Pistorius family’s spokeswoman, said the media need not camp outside the home of the athlete’s uncle in a wealthy suburb of Waterkloof in the capital Pretoria where he has been living since being released on parole. His girlfriend had “nowhere to hide” in the tiny bathroom cubicle, it said.

And it appears neither is the South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal in their overturning of the prior verdict.

He criticized the lower court judge, Thokozile Masipa, for failing to take into account the crucial evidence of a police ballistics expert who testified about the bullet holes and the wounds on Ms. Steenkamp’s body.

Our correspondent says that many in South Africa were upset by the original acquittal on murder charges, with women’s rights groups arguing he should have been found guilty of murder as a deterrent because of the high number of women who are killed by their partners in the country.

Under the concept of “dolus eventualis” in South African law, a person can be convicted of murder if he or she knows that an action could cause someone’s death, but he or she does it anyway. It has already struggled to pay his heavy legal bills, and the athlete has lost his lucrative endorsement deals and his income from the global track circuit.

He also witheringly described Pistorius’ often tearful trial testimony as “vacillating and untruthful”. But on Thursday his family said it would make no comment on the murder conviction. State prosecutors chose to appeal his murder acquittal, believing that he meant to kill.

Under South African law, a murder conviction can be handed down if it can be proven that someone had realized the possibility of killing someone through their actions and continued with them nonetheless. His five-month murder trial, broadcast on live television, had gripped the nation and fueled countless debates.