Pistorius, the adored superstar, goes on trial for murder

There are two faces to Oscar Pistorius, writes Debora Patta. One is the man who appeared on the cover of Time magazine, looking like a vision of the future. A proud man standing strong and tall on his famous blades – the ones that earned him the nickname Blade Runner.

Then there is the other face, the one he tried to hide as he was taken into court on charges of murder. With his murder trial beginning, a South African will decide which face is the real Pistorius.

It’s been dubbed South Africa’s OJ Simpson trial. But there is one crucial difference: we know exactly who fired the fatal shots. In the Oscar Pistorius murder trial, the accused has already admitted to killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. And where OJ’s fame was extended beyond American borders through his murder trial, Oscar Pistorius was already a global phenomenon long before he fired the four gunshots through a locked toilet door that ended Steenkamp’s life.

Erik Weihenmayer wrote that Pistorius was on the cusp of a paradigm shift in which disability becomes ability.

Oscar Pistorius – charming, handsome, world-famous. The very soubriquet used to describe him – “the fastest man on no legs” – is the stuff of myth and legend, of superheroes with superpowers. Not only did he win multiple gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Paralympics, but he qualified to run in the able-bodied 2012 summer Olympics in London. He was on Time magazine’s top 100 list of the world’s most influential people not once, but twice.

Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to climb Mount Everest, wrote that Pistorius was on the cusp of a paradigm shift in which disability becomes abiity. “Through birth or circumstance, some are given certain gifts, but it’s what one does with those gifts, the hours devoted to training, the desire to be the best, that is at the true heart of a champion.”

From disbelief to horror

On Valentine’s Day 2013 all this came crashing down. The sporting star that South Africa and the world adored was shown to be a deeply complex man. As the news spread around the world, South Africa’s stunned disbelief turned to horror. For a country that needed a hero so badly, it was the worst possible kind of story. Oscar Pistorius really had killed his girlfriend, the beautiful, blonde model and reality TV show star Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius claimed it was a terrible accident but the state thought differently and arrested and charged him with pre-meditated murder.

In his bail hearing a distraught Pistorius, who broke down sobbing constantly, told the court that he and Reeva spent a loving night together. That they went to bed after 10, and that he woke in the early hours of the morning and got up to bring in a fan from the bathroom. He heard a noise and believed an intruder had entered his plush upmarket home.

For a country that needed a hero so badly, it was the worst kind of story: Pistorius had killed his girlfriend.

Without putting on his prosthetic legs, he crawled on his stumps to fetch the 9mm pistol he slept with under his bed and fired four shots through the locked toilet door. He then told Steenkamp to call the police. When she did not respond, he grabbed a cricket bat to beat down the door and found her bloodied body slumped on the floor. He carried her downstairs and she died in his arms.

The state presented a very different version. In the original bail application police detective Hilton Botha painted a picture of an Oscar that South Africa had no knowledge of: a violent young man, obsessed with guns, who coldly put on his prosthetic legs and then gunned down his girlfriend in a possible fit of jealous rage. It was a ham-fisted and embarrassing legal procedure for South Africa, as a few days into the bail hearing Botha had to be removed when it was discovered he was facing his own charges of attempted murder.

Pistorius was eventually released on bail of 1m rand and his every move before this moment analysed and re-analysed. It’s a trial that has deeply divided this country. There are the loyal fans for whom the defence that he mistook his beloved girlfriend makes complete sense in a crime-ridden South Africa. And then there are those whose adoration turned to revulsion – regarding Steenkamp’s death as another body count to add to the already staggeringly high domestic violence statistics here. A woman is murdered every eight hours by her intimate male partner – which means a horrifying 57 per cent of all female killings are by their husbands or boyfriends.

Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp, photographed in November 2012

Justice in the dock

These two very different versions will be put to the test in a trial the likes of which this country has never quite seen before. In a precedent-setting legal judgement, Justice Dunstan Mlambo ruled that large chunks of the case can be televised, including opening and closing arguments, expert witnesses and police evidence. Pistorius’s testimony and any witness who chooses not to be filmed will be exempt, but the entire audio of the trial can be recorded. This will put the South African judicial system in the dock, and forensic evidence, ballistics, police investigative work and the state’s prosecutorial team will all be under global scrutiny.

Squaring off in court are two old hands, white Afrikaner legal men with strong track records of winning their cases. For the state, Gerrie Nel, who won international awards for his courageous prosecution of South Africa’s former top cop, Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, who was sentenced to 15 years behind bars for corruption.

Forensic evidence, ballistics, police investigative work and the state’s prosecutional team will be under global scrutiny.

For the defence, Advocate Barry Roux, who is mortified at the thought of all this public attention. He is a private man who likes nothing better than a glass of fine red wine and a really good pizza. Publically he is charmingly self-deprecating, but make no mistake: behind that persona is a razor-sharp legal mind. Speak to anyone, including his opponents, and they will concede that Roux is not only ethical but a force to be reckoned with. As one criminal attorney put it: “It will be a clash of two titans.” Either way, it’s good for the judicial system as it means that Pistorius will get a fair trial.

The third part of this triangle is Mike Van Aardt, the career cop who took over from the embattled Hilton Botha. Van Aardt has been a policeman for 27 years. Murder is his beat and serial killers his speciality. He too hates the limelight but is known for being a solid detective who is thorough and determined. He spent his Christmas break by the sea but didn’t get much rest as he lived and breathed the Pistorius case the entire time.

The case will be heard in front of Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa, who makes this truly South African picture complete as she is very much of the new democratic order – a black female judge. She is blunt and forthright and has little interest in courtroom theatrics. South Africa does not have a jury system — that was abolished in the 1960s – which means Pistorius’s future rests in Masipa’s hands and there is no jury to sway. She is permitted to appoint two expert assessors to assist her, which she has done. The three of them will sift through evidence and expert testimony.

CSI-style forensics

In court documents leaked last week, the country was given an idea of the state’s case. It rests on 13 points, which include some potentially damning evidence. The prosecution team will present witnesses to show that after shooting Steenkamp, Pistorius didn’t call the police or estate security but fashioned a defence and phoned his friends instead.

It has now also emerged that estate security apparently called him after the shots, asking if everything was in order, to which he allegedly replied that it was. Neighbours will testify to a single shot being fired, a brief pause when screams were heard, followed by a volley of three shots.

A dedicated 24-hour pop-up Oscar Pistorius television channel has been launched.

The defence have already given their version of events during the bail application. It now stands as a record and cannot be changed, but legal experts agree that although Pistorius is not compelled to testify, he will probably have to. They have also hired an American forensic company who are supposedly going to provide a theatrical show and tell of all the forensic evidence, CSI-style.

Forensic evidence and ballistics are crucial components of this case and will give an idea of what Steenkamp was doing in that toilet at the time of her death. The state has already conceded that Pistorius was not on his prosthetics at the time of the shooting – a point that the defence believes vindicates Oscar’s honesty and version of events.

The world’s media has already descended on South Africa for the drama that will unfold next week in the Pretoria high court. A dedicated 24-hour pop-up Oscar Pistorius television channel has been launched. And in response, Pistorius’s family and PR machine have opened a Twitter account called @OscarHardTruth. It’s billed as a Twitter handle that will give “the truth and expose those with ulterior motives” ahead of the trial.

A real-life case of Jekyll and Hyde coming live to you from a South African court from 3 March next week.

Debora Patta is a South African broadcast journalist and TV producer. She reports regularly for Channel 4 News