Heated exchanges in Oscar hearing

That is how Pistorius, convicted of murdering his girlfriend – former Port Elizabeth model Reeva Steenkamp – was described in the Pretoria High Court yesterday, where his resentencing is being heard.

Pistorius’s original culpable homicide conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal whose decision was recently upheld by the Constitutional Court.

In heated exchanges yesterday, state prosecutor Gerrie Nel accused Dr Jonathan Scholtz, testifying in mitigation of sentence, of being biased.

Scholtz, a clinical psychologist who examined Pistorius when he underwent observation at Weskoppies Hospital in 2014, tried to persuade the court that Pistorius’s severe anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder had worsened.

Scholtz, led by Pistorius’s lawyer, Barry Roux, said: “This is probably due to the negative attitude of the public and being vilified in the media.

“If he was my patient, I would have him hospitalised.”

Scholtz said Pistorius’s condition prevented him from testifying.

“He’s remorseful and expressed guilt. He prays daily. He’s found some solace in the fact that Reeva is in God’s hands,” he said.

Scholtz said Pistorius had suffered psychological damage in prison from being in isolation for 18 hours a day, hearing a prisoner, who later hanged himself, being raped, being denied his medication, and viewed like a caged animal by warders and other people who came to his cell at night.

“During the trial, we heard of two Oscars, now there is almost a third, whose functioning has deteriorated,” he said. Nel, however, tore into Scholtz. “You say he cannot testify in court, but days ago he did a TV interview,” Nel said.

“In the trial, he was involved in an aggressive confrontation with the investigating officer, and we have a prison report which shows how he was aggressive, verbally violent to prison officials, threw temper tantrums, banged desks and was found illegally with medicines.

“The appeal court said no one knows the true explanation for the shooting.

“Did Pistorius say he armed himself to shoot whoever was behind the door?“

Scholtz, who dismissed the prison officials’ reports as “unscientific”, said Pistorius had intended to shoot anyone behind the door.

Responding to Nel’s claims about Pistorius’s behaviour in prison, Scholtz said: “He was distressed.

“Under the circumstances, his anger [in prison] is understandable. It was only when he first got to prison.” Nel told Scholtz that Pistorius had lied. “The 18 hours solitary confinement and rape and hanging were all lies,” he said.

“His cell door was open a large amount of the time, there is no record of a rape or death.

“He had nothing to fear in terms of safety, because he only had one other person in his section, Radovan Krejcir, who he played ball with whenever he wanted to.

“What you tell us is all based on your assumptions, not interviews done with experts or officials, merely assumptions.”

Criminal law defence expert Llewelyn Curlewis said the weight carried by psychologists’ and other experts’ reports was up to a judge’s discretion.