CONVICTED murderer Oscar Pistorius painstakingly made his way across courtroom GD of the High Court in Pretoria on his stumps today.
“It’s time to explain our address to you,” Barry Roux, for Pistorius, told Judge Thokozile Masipa moments before.
He said that just as Reeva Steenkamp’s father Barry on Tuesday called for the world to be shown photos of the gunshot wounds his daughter had sustained, so too should people see Pistorius’s vulnerability.
Pistorius, who got changed into running shorts and a T-shirt during the teak break, got up from his seat in the dock and walked to the side of the court where he sat down. Steenkamp’s father Barry had to get up to let him pass.
“Just take off the legs,” Roux instructed him. Pistorius did as he was told.
Three police officers next to him looked uncomfortable as he took off his prostheses.
Pistorius then got up and slowly made his way across the court, in front of Masipa’s bench, steadying himself on the furniture. He kept his eyes down.
Several elderly women who had been in court all week to show their support for him, began sobbing.
Pistorius reached the left side of the court and stopped, holding onto a bench. His psychologist Lore Hartzenberg came up to him to comfort him. Someone handed him a tissue as he began crying.
He stood there for several minutes as Roux continued talking.
“It’s not a man running on two healthy legs. It’s a severely compromised person.”
Pistorius made his way back across the court, his face red and streaked with tears. He sat down next to the police officers, put his prostheses back on and walked back into the dock. He sat there, doubled over, hiding his face in his hands.
Source: News24
