WebProNews

Tag: oscar pistorious

  • Oscar Pistorius Heads Home Next Week

    Oscar Pistorius Heads Home Next Week

    Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison on parole on Tuesday, it was revealed today. This means the athlete will have served a year of his five-year sentence with the remainder being served under house arrest.

    Pistorius was found guilty of murdering Reeva Steenkamp, his girlfriend at the time, by shooting her on Valentine’s Day 2013.

    Last October, he was sentence to five years, though his defense said he’d only do a year before serving the rest at home. They were indeed correct about that. AFP reports:

    After meeting last week, the parole board said it wanted to consult with Steenkamp’s family over Pistorius’s possible release.

    An official statement from the department of correctional services said the parole board “approved the placement of offender Oscar Pistorius under correctional supervision” from Tuesday.

    The house arrest will of course include firearms restrictions as well as “continued psychotherapy”.

  • Oscar Pistorius To Appear In Front Of Harsh Judge

    Oscar Pistorius is about to get his day in court and it looks like it won’t be an easy one. Pistorius is accused of killing his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Reeva was shot to death in 2013 on Valentines Day.

    She had only been dating Pistorius for three months, but it is rumored that the relationship had turned abusive fairly quickly.

    Reeva was found dead in Pistorius’s home on February 14, 2013 and although Pistorius admitted to shooting her, he claimed that he did it because he thought she was an intruder.

    He will go back to trial on September 11, and the judge in charge of delivering the verdict is rumored to be a harsh one. Thokozile Matilda Masipa has been the judge in many domestic violence cases and has never had much sympathy for the alleged abusers.

    “She’s very clever, very professional. She comes from a human rights background, so that’s the point – you must allow people to feel like they’ve had their day in court, to feel as if they’ve been heard,” Susan Abro, a senior attorney who served with Masipa on the electoral court for six years, told ABC News.

    She once sentenced a house robber who raped three women to 252 years in prison, and handed a life sentence to a police officer who killed his wife during an argument about their divorce settlement.

    If Pistorius is convicted of premeditated murder, she could sentence him to at least 25 years in prison.

    As serious as Masipa is about domestic violence, she also has a background in human rights and insists that everyone be given a fair trial.

    The family of Pistorius said that they feel like Oscar will be treated fairly and has been given a chance to share his side of the story.

    “As a family, we are confident by the thoroughness and detail of this judgment and Judge Masipa’s commitment using every avenue to ensure a fair trial,” Pistorius’ uncle Arnold Pistorius said.

    While Oscar and his family prepared for the trial this week, friends and family members of Reeva Steenkamp took the time to remember her and say that they hope justice is served.

  • Reeva Steenkamp, Oscar Pistorious’ Girlfriend, Remembered by Dear Friend

    Reeva Steenkamp was remembered recently by a dear friend, during an interview with the BBC. Kerry Smith attended college with Reeva. Tomorrow Oscar Pistorious–once called the Blade Runner for being the fastest man on no legs–will learn whether he is found guilty for murdering her, or is acquitted of his crime.

    Kerry Smith called Reeva Steenkamp a ‘small-town girl.’

    “She was self-conscious. You would never think that but she was,” Kerry said of the friend she knew long before she was twice voted among the “100 sexiest women in the world” for FHM magazine.

    Smith also said her friend was determined to use her law degree in years to come.

    “She always said modeling would not last – you need to have something to come back to,” she told the BBC reporter, as they chatted in Port Elizabeth, where both Kerry and Reeva grew up.

    “She was more than just a pretty face, she had a beautiful heart and ambition,” Smith added.

    Reeva Steenkamp died shortly after being shot by Oscar Pistorious on February 14, 2013. He shot her three times through the bathroom door. He denies having murdered her, saying he believed she was an intruder instead.

    Kerry Smith was one of very few people to attend the small, private funeral for Reeva.

    “There’s no closure. We couldn’t even view her body in the coffin,” she said. One of the shots Oscar Pistorious fired at Reeva Steenkamp hit her in the head.

    In a strange twist of fate, Kerry Smith explained how one of Reeva’s passions was helping victims of domestic violence. In fact, the two had planned to open a law firm together to help domestic violence victims.

    “She wanted to save everyone, wanted to protect everyone,” Kerry Smith said during her BBC interview.

    How ironic that the woman who wanted to save everyone died at the hands of what may well have been domestic violence. Despite what the courts decide tomorrow, it seems Kerry Smith has already made up her mind. She seems to believe without any doubt whatsoever that Oscar Pistorious murdered Reeva Steenkamp–her very dear friend.

  • Reeva Steenkamp’s Friend Opens Up About Murder

    Reeva Steenkamp was a model who was shot dead by her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius on Valentine’s Day 2013. Reeva had only been dating Oscar for three months and it is rumored that he was abusive towards her from early on in the relationship. Oscar was arrested for murder but claimed that he had shot Reeva on accident, confusing her for an intruder.

    Oscar denies the charges and while Reeva is best known for her modeling career, her friends and family want the world to know the real Reeva and how special she really was.

    Kerry Smith was one of Reeva’s closest friends and said that she still can’t believe that she is dead. She described Reeva as a caring and considerate person who always put others before herself. The two met in college and had planned to open a law firm to help abused women after graduating.

    She said that although Reeva enjoyed modeling, she knew it wouldn’t last and wanted to use her degree to help others.

    “She always said modeling would not last – you need to have something to come back to,” she said.

    “She was more than just a pretty face, she had a beautiful heart and ambition,” the 35-year-old legal assistant told BBC News.

    Reeva’s funeral was small and intimate and only her close friends and family members were permitted to attend. Smith said that even though she was one of the people who attended the funeral, she never did feel any closure.

    “There’s no closure. We couldn’t even view her body in the coffin,” she said.

    Smith said that Reeva had dated abusive men in the past and that she believes she really loved Oscar and could not see how bad things were. She said that she hopes her friend can be remembered as the amazing and caring person that she was and that her story can help others.

    “She wanted to save everyone, wanted to protect everyone,” Smith said.

  • Oscar Pistorius Settles Assault Suit

    Oscar Pistorius, South African Paralympian-turned-pariah, has at least one thing off his plate before facing trial for murder: He has agreed to an out of court settlement in an assault case unrelated to the murder of his former girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

    At a 2009 party at Pistorius’ residence, the Olympic and Paralympic sprinter was fighting with his then-girlfriend and allegedly became so enraged that he punched down a door, part of which fell on a guest, Cassidy Taylor-Memmory. Taylor-Memmory then brought a suit against Pistorius seeking a public apology and legal fees. Pistorius countersued for defamation, seeking 2.2 million Rand (roughly $200,000) in recompense.

    Taylor-Memmory claims that after hearing shouting and vulgar language from another room, she approached to find Pistorius screaming at his former lover. “As I approached his large outside doors, Oscar was furiously trying to close them. He started to punch the door and then is when one of the top panels fell and hit my left leg,” she said. “After this happened I went to tell Oscar that he had hurt me to which he replied ‘well, go call your f****** lawyer.’”

    Pistorius, colloquially known as the “Blade Runner” in reference to the blade-like prosthetics he uses as a sprinter, was globally regarded as a hero as recently as a year ago. Having been born without fibula in either leg, his legs were amputated below the knees when he was only 11 months old. However, the absence of legs didn’t prevent him from enjoying a brilliant career as an athlete. His fall from favor was abrupt when his girlfriend, model and reality TV star Reeva Steenkamp, was found shot to death in his home in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013. Pistorius stands accused of the killing and will stand trial next month.

    The terms of the settlement have not been made public, but appear to cover little more than Taylor-Memmory’s legal fees. When asked whether she was merely “chasing money” with the suit, she replied, “All I wanted was an apology from Oscar and the settlement of the legal fees. I have never made a public appearance or even approached the media about it.” Taylor-Memmory further claims that she was intensely harassed for bringing a lawsuit against the man who was at that time still a national hero: “I received hate mail on a daily basis. People who didn’t know me from a bar of soap were calling me the most horrific names. It became so difficult at a stage that I needed a bodyguard when I went out in public due to all the hate rants.”

    Pistorius hasn’t apologized to Taylor-Memmory, likely hoping to minimize damage from this suit insofar as it may affect his criminal defense efforts.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Oscar Pistorius Training Again, Calls the Experience “Bittersweet”

    Oscar Pistorius is training again for the first time in the five months.

    While awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, the Paralympic sprinting champ is returning to the track. His first “formal” workout since his arrest consisted only of light jogging. Pistorius is reported to have lost over twenty lbs. since Steenkamp’s murder. ”It was a very emotional experience for him to put the blades back on, to walk back onto the track, get the smell of the track,” according to Peet Van Zyl, Pistorius’s agent.

    Even though this is his has been called his first formal workout since the murder, The Daily Mail reported on June 8 that Pistorius had paired with Claudia Viljoen, a former elite-level hurdler and currently a sport scientist, to train.

    Prior to Steenkamp’s killing, Pistorius was known world-wide as an inspirational figure. Born without a fibula in either leg, Pistorius’s parents decided to have both of his legs amputated when he was 11 months old. Despite this, he grew up athletic, able to run on custom carbon-fiber “blades,” giving him the moniker “blade runner.”

    His sprinting career has brought him eight Paralympic medals, beginning with the 2004 Athens games. Pistorius was granted permission to compete in the 2012 London Olympic games, where he made the semi-finals in the 400m.

    In the early hours of February 14, 2013, Steenkamp was shot to death in Pistorius’s home. Pistorius has been charged with premeditated murder, though he claims that he believed Steenkamp to have been an intruder.

    His next court appearance is set for August 19, with a trial possible in the fall. If convicted of premeditated murder, he faces 25 years to life imprisonment.