Pistorius’ dad opens up …‘Oscar should never have been convicted’ Oscar Pistorius

JOHANNESBURG. – The paralympian-turned-murderer’s seemingly estranged father insists that he has information critical to the much-hyped murder case, but that he was ignored by family members and the defence team. Oscar Pistorius’ father, Henke, believes his son should never have been convicted of murder and is “furious” that his advice on the case was repeatedly ignored by the Pistorius family and their legal team.

Henke also lashed out at Advocate Gerrie Nel, saying the state prosecutor’s “misleading lies” were an “embarrassment to the country’s legal system”. Scarcely 24 hours after the National Prosecuting Authority filed its appeal against Oscar’s six-year sentence for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, Henke has finally broken his silence in an exclusive interview with City Press’ sister newspaper, Rapport.

“I am now speaking out for Oscar. I am standing up for my child. I remained silent for too long. I stood back. Now that’s over,” said Henke, himself an attorney. Now his frustration with Oscar’s advocate, Barry Roux, has finally boiled over when he read Nel’s appeal arguments in the media.

According to Nel, sentencing must be focussed on the fact that a person who was behind a toilet door and who presented no immediate danger to the accused was shot. “Rubbish! For God’s sake, forget this guessing game of who was standing behind the toilet door, where and how.

“If Reeva was trying to get away – the state alleged she was running away from a ‘gun-wielding Oscar’ – she would have hidden in the opposite corner, or next to the wall alongside the door. She wouldn’t have been sitting on the toilet.”

Henke claims that he performed calculations on the four bullet holes in the toilet door – measuring a square around the bullet holes and comparing it to how much space a person of Reeva’s height would have to stand – and reached his own shocking conclusion.

“If you look at the trajectory of the bullets, it’s clear: If she was standing in the opposite corner, or next to the wall alongside the door, the chances of her being hit were less than one percent.

“That’s irrespective of the fact that the bullets went through the door at a height of lower than 1m and all of them had a downward trajectory, which would hardly have been able to fatally injure a standing person. Now, 1% is miles from the reality Nel is trying to create. God only knows how something so obvious was overlooked. To me, it’s totally inexplicable.”

Henke revealed his findings to Roux; Oscar’s attorney, Brian Webber; and his brother Arnold, but it was repeatedly ignored. “The advice I gave them was simply wiped away. There was no reaction to the request I made as a father.”

Henke even went to Arnold’s office to try to speak to him. “I couldn’t, he was in a long meeting.” Henke then put his conclusions in a letter and followed them up with a phone call.

“It’s shocking, actually. The cardinal questions were not asked! I’m . . . bedonnerd (enraged) about it, to put it lightly. “Furious with everyone who was involved because I said it over and over.” Henke said he even told Roux a few days before the verdict that he hoped this oversight didn’t become Oscar’s Achilles heel. — City Press.

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