Zelda Venter
PRETORIA: Oscar Pistorius is a broken man, who cannot testify in mitigation of his sentence and who should be in hospital for his deteriorating mental condition.
Yet he threw tantrums, shouting at investigating officer Mike van Aard, who investigated the killing of Reeva Steenkamp, that he did not do his job and, in a fit of rage, banged his fists on the desk of a prison nurse. He was also verbally violent and aggressive towards officials during his first month in jail.
This was dramatic evidence from the defence and the prosecution on Monday in the high court in Pretoria on the first day of Pistorius’s sentencing proceedings for murder.
Professor Jonathan Scholtz of Weskoppies Hospital, who in 2014 compiled a report on Oscar’s mental state after he was referred there for observation, again presented a report on his mental condition.
Two years ago Scholtz reported that the Blade Runner suffered from anxiety, severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder. Now the athlete’s mental state has deteriorated, he said.
“His spirit seems broken and one has to prompt him to get hope for the future… Further imprisonment would have a detrimental effect on him,” Scholtz told Judge Thokozile Masipa. He said Oscar was riddled with grief and remorse for killing Reeva.
Scholtz said Oscar had a hellish time during his nearly 12-month stint in jail. He had to spend 18 hours a day in his cell, with only Radovan Krejcir. He was also paraded like a caged animal to visitors brought by wardens at night and he once saw the corpse of an inmate who hanged himself.
He was assaulted in jail, but he never reported it to the prison authorities.
Scholtz recommended that Oscar remain out of prison, working for Twin City Development, a company owned by his uncle Arnold, in their programme for early childhood development. His dream was to help children, Scholtz said.
But prosecutor Gerrie Nel questioned how Oscar was “in no state to take the stand”, yet could tell his story to UK television station ITV.