Panel: Pistorius not mentally ill at time of shooting
Print Edition
A PANEL of mental health experts has concluded that Oscar Pistorius was not suffering from a mental illness when he killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his home last year, the chief prosecutor at the athlete’s murder trial said yesterday.
Pistorius’ trial resumed after a break of one month during which a psychologist and three psychiatrists also assessed whether the double-amputee runner was capable of understanding the wrongfulness of his act when he shot Steenkamp through a closed toilet door.
The panel’s reports were submitted to South African judge Thokozile Masipa, and prosecutor Gerrie Nel referred to key parts of the conclusions, noting that the experts believed Pistorius was “capable of appreciating the wrongfulness of his act” when he killed Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model.
The evaluation came after a psychiatrist, Dr Merryll Vorster, testified for the defense that Pistorius, who has said he feels vulnerable because of his disability and long-held worry about crime, had an anxiety disorder that could have contributed to the killing in the early hours of February 14, 2013. He testified that he opened fire after mistakenly thinking there was an intruder in the toilet.
Nel has alleged that Pistorius, 27, killed Steenkamp after a Valentine’s Day argument, and has portrayed the Olympic athlete as a hothead with a love of guns and an inflated sense of entitlement. But he requested an independent inquiry into Pistorius’ state of mind, based on concern the defense would argue Pistorius was not guilty because of mental illness.
Pistorius faces 25 years to life in prison if found guilty of premeditated murder. He is free on bail. Pistorius was evaluated as an outpatient at Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital in Pretoria, the South African capital.
Later, defense lawyer Barry Roux called surgeon Gerald Versfeld, who amputated Pistorius’ lower legs when he was 11 months old, to testify about his disability and the difficulty and pain he endured while walking or standing on his stumps without support. Pistorius was born without fibulas, the slender bones that run from below the knee to the ankle.
At Roux’s invitation, Judge Masipa and her two legal assessors left the dais to closely inspect the stumps of Pistorius as he sat on a bench.
The athlete was on his stumps when he killed Steenkamp, and his defense team has argued that he was more likely to try to confront a perceived danger rather than flee because of his limited ability to move without prostheses.
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