/ 4 June 2013

Pushing and shoving for a glimpse of Oscar Pistorius

Oscar Pistorius.
Oscar Pistorius.

Journalists pushed and shoved their way through the doors of the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, hours before Pistorius was due to appear.

Despite the fact that the outcome was already close to a dead certainty – a postponement of the matter until August – well over a hundred journalists and dozens of television crews crowded the court.

With two of the 10 benches in court C set aside for friends and family, photographers and reporters jockeyed for a position in the room.

In terms of a previous ruling, photos and recording are allowed for a brief window after Pistorius enters the dock, but before proceedings actually begin.

Public and media interest in the matter has not slacked appreciably since Pistorius last appeared at the same court to argue bail.

In anticipation of the high level of interest a large number of police and private security guards were on duty throughout the building, which was spruced up on Monday.

Registration for media outlets keen to cover the appearance closed on Friday as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) tried to formalise logistics around the appearance. Arrangements around video cameras and allowing journalists into proceedings started in earnest on Monday.

Small opportunity
Television stations argued that they should be allowed to broadcast the proceedings in the case live but magistrate Desmond Nair ruled in February that he would only allow videoing and photography while the court is not in session, creating a small window of opportunity for cameras to crowd around Pistorius as he enters the court.

Yet, barring a surprise from the bench, there is little business to conduct; prosecutors and Pistorius's team have already agreed to postpone the murder trial until August to allow police to continue their investigation and the NPA to construct the case that Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp in cold blood.

When those details, including a witness list, is presented to Pistorius in August, his team is expected to ask for a postponement of its own in order to fine-tune a defence, which will probably push the case into 2014. And despite a clear and detailed version of events from Pistorius – that he shot Steenkamp under the impression that he was defending himself against an intruder – it is expected to see further interruptions once properly under way as the two sides tussle over various pieces of evidence.

Police are understood to have interviewed several dozen witnesses, many of them residents of the estate in which Pistorius had been living at the time of the shooting. Some of the interviews revolved around initial reports that neighbours heard loud late-night arguments from the house where Steenkamp was an overnight visitor before the shooting.

Yet it is forensic evidence that will be key. Pistorius maintains that he fired through a closed bathroom door while standing only on the stumps of his amputated legs. Part of the defence he already advanced during arguments for bail was that this made him feel more vulnerable. Police initially said the trajectory of the shots indicated they were fired from a more normal height, implying that Pistorius was wearing prostheses at the time. Investigators have since remained mum on such details, despite rumours that especially British tabloids intimated the continued availability of considerable sums of money for inside information.

Sky News also released graphic pictures of the crime scene last week Friday.