THE trial may have been nine years ago but details are easy to remember. A man often in tears, a green sick bucket between his legs, pleading plaintively to “my lady”, the judge. And later, walking unsteadily around the courtroom on his stumps in a desperate bid for leniency during his sentencing hearing.
The Oscar Pistorius case was practically all South Africans could talk about – it was our equivalent of the OJ Simpson trial, a riveting drama playing out on live TV, showcasing the downfall of a once-elite athlete.
Then it was off to prison with him, the golden era of the Blade Runner well and truly over. Reeva Steenkamp, the beautiful woman he killed in a burst of bullets behind a toilet door, was gone forever and Oscar had to live with the consequences.
For more than 3 000 nights he slept in a cell, swopping the luxury of his home in a high-security Pretoria estate for the austerity of jail.
When he went into prison he was 29, now’s he’s 37 and an uncertain future lies ahead.
WHAT HIS PAROLE MEANS
He may be out of jail but that doesn’t mean he’s free, says Dr Llewelyn Curlewis, a criminal justice expert at the University of Pretoria.
He’s served
