[Omah]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...te-abroad.html

"Oscar has no plans to compete internationally at this point," said Peet van Zyl, his agent, said, dismissing suggestions Pistorius had planned to compete at the July 26-28 Anniversary Games, but was not invited.

"There never were any plans for Oscar to participate in London," said Van Zyl. "He is not training officially and there are no plans, at this point, for him to resume his international career."

The comments come after organisers of the three-day Anniversary Games at London's Olympic Park said the South African Paralympian, who has been charged with murdering his girlfriend, would not be welcome.

"I don't want to see the Sunday of the Anniversary Games turning into a media circus," UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner said.

Last month the double amputee, who is known as the "Blade Runner", successfully challenged his strict bail conditions, opening the door for him to travel abroad and fuelling speculation about a return to the track.

But Pistorius's focus, according to Van Zyl, "remains preparing for and dealing with the legal process in South Africa".

A subtle change of tune from the "agent" .....

[Nedusa]

Lets hope he doesn't come to be known as the "Bail Runner"...!!!!!

[Omah]

Originally Posted by Omah

http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-cour...9#.UVvfaBRwavE

Originally Posted by Omah

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/201...torius-defence

Originally Posted by Omah

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-04-03-c...vents-to-court

http://ewn.co.za/2013/04/25/Constabl...Pistorius-case

JOHANNESBURG - A constable who attended to the 2008 accident involving Carl Pistorius has been called to testify this on Thursday.

Oscar Pistorius' older brother was involved in the accident which left motorcyclist, Marietjie Barnard dead.

His culpable homicide trial is continuing in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrates Court.

Constable Robert Ropadu said Barnard was still alive when he arrived on the scene.

He went to the injured motorcyclist and tried to attend to her.

Throughout previous proceedings Pistorius’ lawyer Kenny Oldwage argued that Barnard was drunk and speeding on the night of the incident and she was the one responsible for crashing into Pistorius’ bakkie.

However, Ropadu told the court he did not smell alcohol on Barnard’s breath after he examined her.

Pistorius is expected to testify that he was driving next to a Volkswagen Fox when he heard a noise coming from the undercarriage of his car.

He then observed a motorcycle was airborne and to the right of his bakkie.

Pistorius will testify that he applied brakes and “safely” brought his vehicle to a standstill.

[Omah]

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...channel-5.html

Channel 5 has released details of an Oscar Pistorius documentary that has been timed to coincide with the South African Olympic and Paralympic athlete's upcoming trial.

The broadcaster will use two experienced South African lawyers to argue the questions that will be at the centre of the trial. The film will also include a purpose-built replica of Pistorius's bedroom and bathroom, where the shooting took place.

Sam Barcroft, from producers Barcroft Productions, said: "Blanket news coverage means everyone now has a view on what happened on the night of Reeva's death - and this special analyses the evidence that will prove crucial during Oscar's trial.

"Using an adventurous and forensic approach, we enable viewers to get to grips with the trial of the century."

The programme will air in June on Channel 5.

My expectations of this "production" are not high .....

It's from the makers of "The Girl With Eight Limbs" and "My Baby Is a Monkey" .....

[Omah]

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/u...rticle/2193965

Oscar Pistorius returns to court next month for his murder trial, notes the Huffington Post, and anyone interested in the case should make a new Vanity Fairpiece required reading. The article by Mark Seal doesn't have any bombshell revelations on the main question-did the amputee Olympian murder girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a rage or, as he insists, mistake her for a burglar?-but it paints a more complete portrait of all the main players, including the detective convinced of the athlete's guilt, and recounts the night of the killing. Pistorius in particular comes off as an egomaniac with long-standing anger issues.

--"When Pistorius competed at the London Olympics, last summer, (a radio host) interviewed the athlete's roommate at the Olympic Village: 'What is it like to sleep in the same room with a superstar?' And he said, 'I moved out. Oscar is always shouting at people on the phone.'"

--A "former confidant" tells Seal that the Olympics changed Pistorius for the worse. "He was bragging about his adventures in the good life. He was like, 'I'm the man, I'm Oscar. The world owes me.' That sense of entitlement. He wasn't like that; he was made into that."

--In subsequent training sessions at a gym, his "swearing would astonish the mothers and children also using the gym," says a reporter. "He would storm out of the gym midway through a workout. He would be surly, rude. It seemed as though he survived on energy drinks and caffeine pills."

Here's one assessment of the six-page article: "After reading Seal's piece, I'm convinced that Oscar Pistorius is kind of a jerk," writes Justin Peters at Slate. "But while the piece definitely nudges the reader toward the conclusion that he murdered Steenkamp, it hasn't cleared up all reasonable doubt."

[Cherie]

When Pistorius competed at the London Olympics, last summer, (a radio host) interviewed the athlete's roommate at the Olympic Village: 'What is it like to sleep in the same room with a superstar?' And he said, 'I moved out. Oscar is always shouting at people on the phone.'

Shouting at people on the phone doensn't make you a killer He is still guilty though.

[Omah]

Originally Posted by Cherie

Shouting at people on the phone doensn't make you a killer He is still guilty though.

You can't shoot someone over the phone .....

But he shot Reeva, of that there is no doubt - the possibility now arises that he has anger management problems - an angry man with a pistol to hand and the target of that anger in front of him - does he think about his stupidity and put the weapon down or has the red mist descended upon him and obscured his rationality .....

[Omah]

http://news.sky.com/story/1093392/os...-again-in-2013

Oscar Pistorius will not compete again this year as he awaits trial for murder, his agent has confirmed.

The double-amputee has remained largely out of public view amid intense international interest in his case.

The 26-year-old is on bail following the February 14 shooting, but is allowed to compete before his court case is heard.

However, Ampie Louw, the six-times Paralympic champion's coach, has turned down invitations to take part in major international athletic events.

"We have decided as a team we are not talking (about) any training or athletics," he said. "We have postponed (races) for the whole year."

He said Pistorius was not psychologically ready to take part in any events.

"He is nowhere close to being in a position to train. He just does fitness exercises in the morning with his family."

It means the South African will not compete in the IPC World Championships in Lyon in July.

He had not been invited to compete in the London Anniversary Games that same month.

Pistorius is next due in court on June 4, and a trial is expected to take place before the end of this year.

No surprise at that announcement - the surprise is that such activity was actively considered after Pistorius killed Reeva.

[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22614530

The brother of athletics star Oscar Pistorius has been acquitted of culpable homicide over the death of a motorcyclist in South Africa.

A magistrate ruled that Carl Pistorius, 28, had not been negligent in the death of Marietjie Barnard in March 2008.

The prosecution admitted it had been unable to prove the charges and said it would take no further action

.

No surprise, there, either - Pistorius may have been negligent, but Barnard was drunk .....

[Omah]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...end-of-rainbow

A couple of years ago, two journalist friends of mine spent an afternoon with Oscar Pistorius. For much of the time, they recall, Oscar was quiet and self-contained. And then, apropos of nothing, he told a story. He was driving on the outskirts of a black township, he said, when a dog ran under his wheels. In his rear-view mirror, he watched as it dragged itself off the road by its front legs, its hind legs useless to it now. Its back was clearly broken. He stopped and got out of his car to find that the dog's owner had come out on to the street, shouting, cursing, gesticulating. What to do? Oscar grabbed his gun, shot the dog through the back of the head and drove off.

On Valentine's Day 2013, when the world learned that Oscar Pistorius had shot Reeva Steenkamp dead through a closed bathroom door, this story no longer sounded the same. Before 14 February, the man in the tale my friends tell is a little inscrutable, too hard perhaps, and clearly a cowboy. In the end, though, he does use his gun to put an animal out of its misery. But now… Well, along with everything else Oscar has ever said and done, it takes its place in the biographical backdrop to an alleged murder.

So it is with all of the crazy tales about Oscar. They are legendary. Versions of them appeared periodically in the New York Times, in Wired, in New Scientist. The journalist arrives in Johannesburg to find that Oscar himself has come to the airport to meet him. There is no chauffeur; Oscar will drive. On the freeway, he clocks 250kmh while reading a text message from a girl who wants to spend the night with him. The journalist is scared; he suddenly remembers that last year Oscar almost killed himself in a speedboat accident.

Another such tale: at Oscar's home, over lunch, talk turns to guns and Oscar grabs his 9mm pistol and two boxes of ammunition. And now Oscar and the journalist are burning a trail to the firing range, because Oscar insists on teaching the journalist to shoot.

Before 14 February, these were the colourful trimmings of magazine profiles. Oscar's accomplishments were superhuman. He had licence to be a little crazy. Indeed, it was expected. But now… Well, a switch has been flipped and we are listening to these same stories in a very dark place.

[Omah]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013...d-unpaid-taxes

Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic star facing a murder charge, was fined for unpaid taxes after being forced to declare his assets during his bail hearing, it was reported on Sunday.

South Africa's City Press newspaper said the tax authorities audited and fined the double-amputee runner "less than one million rand" (Ł69,169), which he duly paid.

The Paralympian declared in a court affidavit during his application to be freed on bail that he earned around $630,000 (Ł415,265) a year and owned three houses and a vacant plot in South Africa with a combined value of nearly $1m.

City Press reported that he owns another house in Johannesburg, which he bought for 9.8m rand (Ł677,856) this year but this was not declared as part of his assets in the affidavit. City Press did not say if that house was bought before or after the killing of Steenkamp at his $500,000-home in a gated community in Pretoria.

Possibly just an oversight, but it's cost him .....

[lostalex]

I think he's guilty,. just my PERSONAL OPINION. why isn't he in jail? oh yea, he's a rich sports star... did we learn nothing from OJ simpson?

**** Reeva, she's worthless. She's a worthless piece of trash, how dare she make him kill her. what a horrible woman.

[Omah]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/pistori...6961--oly.html .

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- The police investigation into Oscar Pistorius' killing of his girlfriend on Valentine's Day won't be completed until August, prosecutors said Saturday, ahead of the double-amputee Olympian's first court appearance in nearly four months.

The National Prosecuting Authority said in a statement that it was ''content with the progress thus far'' of the investigation, which will have taken nearly six months by the time the state is ready to proceed with Pistorius' murder trial.

Pistorius will return to Courtroom C at Pretoria Magistrate's Court on June 4. He is expected to appear for only 10 minutes, but will give the world its first view of him since bail was granted on Feb. 22 in a hearing that lasted nearly a week and during which he cut a broken, sobbing figure as details of the shooting were aired.

The NPA expects the June 4 proceedings to be ''a mere postponement'' ahead of another date in August. Meanwhile, police investigators continue to collect and scrutinize evidence and identify and interview possible witnesses to Pistorius' shooting of Reeva Steenkamp at his upscale home in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14.

Since Pistorius left public view, whisked away from the court building in the back seat of an SUV with darkened windows, his defense team has successfully appealed some of his bail restrictions. He has been living at the house of his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, in an upmarket Pretoria suburb that is not far from the gated community in which he fired the shots through a toilet door that killed Steenkamp.

Pistorius denies murdering Steenkamp, claiming he mistook her for a nighttime intruder. The state says he killed the 29-year-old model and law graduate intentionally following a fight and charged the multiple Paralympic champion with premeditated murder.

But while Pistorius has been finding ways to cope ''with his sense of isolation,'' according to a statement by his family, he faces a life sentence in prison if found guilty.

''We as the National Prosecuting Authority are content with the progress thus far on the currently continuing investigations,'' the NPA said, ''and we anticipate ... the investigations shall be wrapped up by or before August 2013.''

The NPA said the hearing would be presided over by Acting Chief Magistrate Daniel Thulare, who is not the same magistrate from the bail application.

There have been only two reported sightings of Pistorius in public since he was freed: an image of him on his carbon fiber blades walking on his practice running track, and a visit to a Johannesburg restaurant.

[Omah]

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Ne...trial-20130530

Johannesburg - Double-amputee South African running sensation Oscar Pistorius is due to appear in court on 4 June for the start of a trial in which he stands accused of murdering his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, in February.

Lawyers for both the prosecution and the defence have said the first hearing in Pretoria will be a mere formality, lasting perhaps 10 minutes, with months of delays expected before the actual trial begins.

Whenever it does fully kick off - with a plethora of witnesses, experts, and friends expected to testify - the world's eyes will be fixed on the 26-year-old Bladerunner, the man who made history in London last year when he was the first double-amputee to compete in the Olympics.

But, for many legal scholars in South Africa, the real spotlight will be on state lawyers from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

While the NPA claims a conviction rate of 88%, setbacks in a recent string of high-profile cases are damaging the organisation's public image.

Prosecutors failed to convict police officers accused of killing activist Andries Tatane during a protest in 2011; one of the men accused of gang-raping and killing 17-year-old Anene Booysen was released for lack of evidence; and J Arthur Brown, who allegedly swindled thousands of widows and orphans out of their savings, was able to walk away with a fine and a suspended sentence.

The problems with the NPA have been ongoing for years, and include alleged improprieties regarding graft cases against Jacob Zuma, now president, in the period right before he took office.

It won't look good if a self-confessed killer, who has already been granted bail, subsequently walks free from a court because of further incidents of "official" incompetence .....

[Omah]

http://news.sky.com/story/1097557/pi...ene-of-killing

Images obtained by Sky News show the room where Reeva Steenkamp was fatally shot. WARNING: These pictures may cause distress.

Now, there are further allegations about the police conduct at the house. Two different sources have told Sky News that other officers are being investigated too after the disappearance of one of the athlete's watches from his house

The South African Police Service, when contacted by us, refused to comment.

But the latest allegations will only add to the impression that the initial investigation into the killing of Reeva Steenkamp was not entirely above reproach.

[lostalex]

He killed her and he knew exactly what he was doing.

[Marc]

The prosecutions arguement seems more likely

[lostalex]

Sounds like his lawyers are tryna turn this into another OJ Simpson case. Put all the attention on the cops. Make the cops into the bad guys.

[Omah]

Originally Posted by lostalex

He killed her and he knew exactly what he was doing.

Of that, there is, in my mind, no doubt - the only doubts in the tragic death of Reeva are in everything Pistorius says .....

[Omah]

Originally Posted by lostalex

Sounds like his lawyers are tryna turn this into another OJ Simpson case. Put all the attention on the cops. Make the cops into the bad guys.

The cops ARE the bad guys ..... and, if they're not bad, they're incompetent .....

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Omah

The cops ARE the bad guys ..... and, if they're not bad, they're incompetent .....

that's probably true, but that doesn't make him any less of a murderer.

[Omah]

Originally Posted by lostalex

that's probably true, but that doesn't make him any less of a murderer.

No, but when the investigating officer is himself facing SEVEN charges of attempted murder, you have to wonder at the "scales" of justice in South Africa .....

[Marcus.]

tiswt in the tale

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Omah

No, but when the investigating officer is himself facing SEVEN charges of attempted murder, you have to wonder at the "scales" of justice in South Africa .....

Sounds like the scales of justice should come crashing down on all of their heads.

A Plague on Both of your houses!

[Omah]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...y-8639962.html

Speaking to Eyewitness News, Pistorius’ defence attorney Bryan Webber described the images appearance in the public domain as “distressing” and said that this was the first time the defence had seen them, despite five previous requests for access. Webber called for the National Prosecuting Authority to explain their appearance.

According to South African news outlet News24, Brigadier Phuti Setati, a spokesperson for the South African police service said they would not comment on the pictures. However, he did say: “We don't want to be distracted by these deliberate tactics. All that we want to do is secure conviction, so we are working throughout and investigating professionally.”

A couple of weird statements .....