Paralympic sprint star Oscar Pistorius — charged with murdering his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, — will go on trial at the High Court from March 3 to 20, a South African magistrate ruled at a packed court hearing on Monday.
Reeva Steenkamp, who would have turned 30 on Monday, was shot dead by Pistorius in the bathroom of his home on February 14. Prosecutors will argue he is guilty of pre-meditated murder.
“According to the indictment, it is intentional, it is planned, premeditated,” said prosecution spokesman Medupe Simasiku. “It’s something that was planned in the mind, that ‘I’m going to take a gun, go to the bathroom and fire some shots’, whether it was an intruder or it was Reeva Steenkamp herself,” he said.
‘Scream, gunshots, and more screaming’
According to the chargesheet, 107 witnesses, including many of Pistorius’ neighbours heard a woman scream, followed by moments of silence, then heard gunshots and then more screaming. Ballistics reports from the bathroom door suggest Pistorius was on his stumps when the shooting took place.