Pretoria - Self-confessed killer Mikey Schultz stole 30 percent of paralympian Oscar Pistorius's usual media and social network coverage over the last 24 hours, a media monitoring organisation said on Friday.
“Schultz stormed onto the chart yesterday (Thursday) with a whopping 30 percent of the Oscar coverage,” said Return on Innovation Africa (ROI) managing director Tonya Khoury in a statement.
“This was because of the alleged threat he made... in court... and his subsequent swearing on a radio interview yesterday (on Thursday).”
ROI is a media intelligence organisation that monitors over 206 platforms, including news and social media, across 100 countries.
Schultz went to the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday and sat in the same row as the Pistorius family, despite it being reserved for them.
He told reporters he was there to support the family of Reeva Steenkamp, who was shot dead by Pistorius in his Pretoria home on February 14, 2013. Steenkamp was Pistorius's girlfriend at the time.
When court adjourned for a lunch break, Pistorius's sister Aimee was seen crying. Her brother Carl comforted her and reportedly said the former boxer mouthed “f*** you” to Aimee.
Schultz denied the allegation.
“That did not happen. The Pistorius family are all liars. They (are) the victims once again. The Pistorius's are clearly a bunch of liars along with Oscar,” he said.
“I did not threaten anybody in court. I came in, I had a seat, I don't know where the allegations come from - they can go back and look at the video footage.”
When asked why he thought Aimee Pistorius was crying, he said maybe it was because “she realised her brother was going to jail”.
Schultz said he was directed to sit close to the Pistorius family.
Later Schultz spoke to Xolani Gwala on radio station 702's Afternoon Drive show, where he denied swearing her.
A caller asked Schultz: “How do you feel as a murderer? You are a disgrace!”
Schultz responded on air: “Go f*** yourself”.
Businessman Brett Kebble was shot dead in September 2005, in an “assisted suicide” carried out by Schultz, Faizel Smith, and Nigel McGurk.
Khoury, meanwhile, said its figures show the public and the media across the globe were rife with speculation on the outcome of Pistorius's sentencing.
“By an enormous majority, social networks particularly are calling for jail time,” she said.
According to a graph, ROI determined that 65.5 percent of people wanted Pistorius to be jailed, and 18.58 percent wanted him to get house arrest.
Another 9.76 percent of people wanted Pistorius to be given community service, and 6.15 percent wanted him to be fined. - Sapa