Oscar Pistorius

[Inforapenny]

I read somewhere or saw on a documentary that the first person he phoned (whilst carrying reevas body downstairs) was his friend or lawyer or lawyer friend.
Says it all

I was also glued to the trial & there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that he knew it was Reeva in the toilet. I think he got the gun out to scare her and then lost control.

All of the evidence - every single shred of it - contradicted his story.

I always thought that this was an excellent summary of his “version”:

Oscar Pistorius: My version of events. Brilliant summary.

A blogger takes a wry look at the account Oscar Pistorius has given of the night he killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

www.biznews.com

(Not sure how to do links. Did that work?)

Great article and yes it says there that he called his friend

 

[Dotty007]

Definately intentional, he was treated like royalty here in South Africa and was arrogant. People like that start thinking they are above the law.

I bet he thought he could get away with it - she was beautiful

 

[Sjc_80]

I bet he thought he could get away with it - she was beautiful

She was beautiful, and she came across as being a nice, caring person too from what I've read.

 

[Yoga8619]

Something I never understood, he had a live-in housekeeper, living in an annex at the side of the house. Apparently he slept through the whole thing, only woke up when the ambulance arrived. Since I guess he had no information neither prosecution nor defence teams bothered with him in the trial. Always thought that was odd.

 

[Affiliatemebaby]

Something I never understood, he had a live-in housekeeper, living in an annex at the side of the house. Apparently he slept through the whole thing, only woke up when the ambulance arrived. Since I guess he had no information neither prosecution nor defence teams bothered with him in the trial. Always thought that was odd.

You’re not the only one.

 

[Tea4u]

I’m watching The Trials of Oscar Pistorius on BBC iPlayer. Has anyone else watched this?

 

[Inforapenny]

Yes I watched it and wondered when they were going to stop blowing smoke up his stumpy arse and acknowledge what he did.

Interesting and bizarre that south Africa don't have a jury, I am sure there is a reason for it

 

[Penelope Strawberry]

Yes I watched it and wondered when they were going to stop blowing smoke up his stumpy arse and acknowledge what he did.

Interesting and bizarre that south Africa don't have a jury, I am sure there is a reason for it

South Africa has a Roman Dutch legal system,
so most trials have always been controlled by magistrates or judges. Sometimes panels of judges are used for appeals or constitutional cases.

Introducing jury trials would be problematic in South Africa because of persisting inequality.

I've heard that the BBC documentary took such a sympathetic view of Pistorius and hardly made any mention of Reeva. It boils my blood so much that I've not been able to bring myself to try and watch it!

 

[Shinythings]

I've finished and I think it was fairly balanced. The first 2 episodes focus a lot on him and his career but the last two focus more in the trial.

 

[Inforapenny]

South Africa has a Roman Dutch legal system,
so most trials have always been controlled by magistrates or judges. Sometimes panels of judges are used for appeals or constitutional cases.

Introducing jury trials would be problematic in South Africa because of persisting inequality.

I've heard that the BBC documentary took such a sympathetic view of Pistorius and hardly made any mention of Reeva. It boils my blood so much that I've not been able to bring myself to try and watch it!

Interesting! I thought the rife inequality might be part of the reason.

I've finished and I think it was fairly balanced. The first 2 episodes focus a lot on him and his career but the last two focus more in the trial.

How on earth did you think it was balanced? Truly interested.
The top ballistics guy in South Africa was on a doc and he testified and his evidence pretty much ruined oscar even though he had the best lawyers money could buy.
The BBC doc did not show the true extent of his crime and how he was an excellent shot and kept shooting until he killed reeva

 

[Tea4u]

I’ve only watched 2 episodes but they keep talking about how “wonderful” he was and tbh it’s making it a hard watch to me knowing he killed someone. So far he is portrayed as a courageous young man, inspirational etc and went through a lot. Barely any mention of Reeva or even her family.
But as someone said above maybe the last 2 episodes will be more about his trial.

 

[Chocolate2008]

Hi everyone, long time lurker but had to get involved in this one So, I think he’s innocent but does deserve to be in prison purely for the fact he shot to kill an unidentified target who turned out to be his gf. I grew up in SA and the crime really is horrific. You only have to look online for videos of hijackings involving firearms to know that those who survived did so because they reacted quickly. Also, burglars tend to torture and kill people in SA so I understand the fear. When news first broke I also thought it was intentional but if you watch the documentary it does state a lot of the media reports were false. The arguments on what’s app where again spread apart and resolved quickly but where made to seem like they had happened close together and were frequent. From over 1700 texts, only 4 showed some sort of disagreement. There was no signal of domestic violence and she didn’t mention him hurting her physically. I think the screaming/shouting more than likely came from Oscar. As stated in court, Reeva would have been dead at the time the neighbours heard the shouting/screaming. I think he was arrogant, immature and secretly very insecure. As you can all see, I was very invested in the show and would love to hear counter arguments

This makes a lot of sense to me. Not from SA nor have I ever been but even I know someone who was carjacked there.

Assuming you are correct about the texts, that’s very interesting how things can be spun.

 

[Miscanthus]

I’m watching The Trials of Oscar Pistorius on BBC iPlayer. Has anyone else watched this?

Yes, I watched it. I was haunted by the event and then the programme (some years ago) that followed it, which left me confused.

I was interested to watch this 4 episode programme. They spent a lot of time establishing his character and talking to people who knew him. You started to lose sight of the fact he killed a person and shot at the door, knowing he could kill.
I kept swinging between emotions.

 

[Shinythings]

Interesting! I thought the rife inequality might be part of the reason.


How on earth did you think it was balanced? Truly interested.
The top ballistics guy in South Africa was on a doc and he testified and his evidence pretty much ruined oscar even though he had the best lawyers money could buy.
The BBC doc did not show the true extent of his crime and how he was an excellent shot and kept shooting until he killed reeva

Just to be clear, I do think he murdered her so I don't come from a place of thinking it was all an accident. I just felt it was balanced in that, to me, it didn't come across as Team Oscar or Team Reeva when it came to specifically talking about the trial. It was more just a telling of the trial and which way it went. I didn't see it as a documentary that tried to prove one side or another.

 

[LaraQ]

Just to be clear, I do think he murdered her so I don't come from a place of thinking it was all an accident. I just felt it was balanced in that, to me, it didn't come across as Team Oscar or Team Reeva when it came to specifically talking about the trial. It was more just a telling of the trial and which way it went. I didn't see it as a documentary that tried to prove one side or another.

Agree.They were being objective.It certainly didn't feel like they were taking sides.

 

[Miscanthus]

Just to be clear, I do think he murdered her so I don't come from a place of thinking it was all an accident. I just felt it was balanced in that, to me, it didn't come across as Team Oscar or Team Reeva when it came to specifically talking about the trial. It was more just a telling of the trial and which way it went. I didn't see it as a documentary that tried to prove one side or another.

I think the fact that my did he/didnt he emotions swung from one to the other meant it was fair. However, they did spend a lot of time in the first few episodes painting a picture of him as somebody who was decent, kind etc etc to the extent that I thought he couldn't have done it deliberately.
On the other hand, and this is where it's confusing...who shoots at a closed door, knowing there is someone inside without thinking they might kill the person...whoever that is?

 

[Inforapenny]

A documentary which you can find on YouTube left me with nightmares.
They showed court footage, the top SA ballistics guy was interesting because he could accurately say how and when the shots were fired. According to him this is how it happened
Oscar chased Reeva into the bathroom with his gun
Once at the bathroom and Reeva being petrified she fled to the toilet and locked the door
Oscar then fired FOUR shots, not one out of anger but four to make sure he'd finish the job
The first hit her hip so she would've screamed and fell (oscar claimed he thought this was an intruder knocking over the magazine holder).
He then shot twice more, one hitting the door knob
At this point and because he is such an excellent marksman he accurately guessed where her head was and finished the job.

In court they showed video footage of oscar shooting water melons with bullseye accuracy and laughing. He lied in court and said he didn't know shooting terminology or how to shoot proficiently.

Then the prosecution showed the shot head of Reeva and likened it to a water melon.
Horrific

He had been abusive to exs
,

 

[GossipHun]

I thought the 4 part series was really fair and balanced. There were plenty of mentions about reeva and the sort of person she was.

The parts on his career and family background etc wasn't to make you feel sorry for him... they were facts!

 

[Be nice for biscuits]

Yes I watched it and wondered when they were going to stop blowing smoke up his stumpy arse and acknowledge what he did.

Interesting and bizarre that south Africa don't have a jury, I am sure there is a reason for it

Trial by jury or an adversarial system is awful. Most average members of the public are wholly incapable of what is required. The South African system also employed in certain European countries is far better on the whole.

As for the documentary, my observation is that they tried to give context in order to excuse his behaviour to an extent, however no matter how troubling certain aspects or his upbringing were or how he fell foul of destructive influences in his ‘down’ time, he was guilty of murder. Plenty of people who were previously thought to be of good character are capable of murder whether their family like it or not. As for the initial decision I think the judge got caught up in the high profile nature of the case and the general disbelief that a celebrated son and success of SA could be guilty....she let this steer her judgement.

The attempts that I saw to discredit prosecution witnesses were appalling and I have had significant experience in crown court trials in the UK. Utterly amateurish....to be honest all of the proceedings that were shown at the initial trial would not instil any confidence in the professionalism of their courts. I hope that this was isolated incompetence.

 

[QuirkyFlamingo]

A documentary which you can find on YouTube left me with nightmares.
They showed court footage, the top SA ballistics guy was interesting because he could accurately say how and when the shots were fired. According to him this is how it happened
Oscar chased Reeva into the bathroom with his gun
Once at the bathroom and Reeva being petrified she fled to the toilet and locked the door
Oscar then fired FOUR shots, not one out of anger but four to make sure he'd finish the job
The first hit her hip so she would've screamed and fell (oscar claimed he thought this was an intruder knocking over the magazine holder).
He then shot twice more, one hitting the door knob
At this point and because he is such an excellent marksman he accurately guessed where her head was and finished the job.

In court they showed video footage of oscar shooting water melons with bullseye accuracy and laughing. He lied in court and said he didn't know shooting terminology or how to shoot proficiently.

Then the prosecution showed the shot head of Reeva and likened it to a water melon.
Horrific

He had been abusive to exs
,

The man is a psychopath, and he was rightly locked up (eventually). He absolutely knew what he was doing. I remember seeing him being interviewed in the 2012 Olympics, after coming second. He was absolutely seething with anger, throwing around accusations of foul play. At the time, I was really shocked and remember thinking he wasn’t actually the nice man he was painted to be.