Photo : Paralympic Star, Oscar Pistorius breaks down in tears as court hears murder charge

the Olympic and Paralympic superstar stood with head bowed in front of magistrate Desmond Nair to the hear the charge of one count of murder read out.

He then started sobbing uncontrollably, covering his face with his hands.


"Take it easy. Come take a seat," Nair told him.

Prosecutors told the Pretoria court they would argue the shooting was pre-meditated murder, which carries a prison sentence of up to life, and he will remain detained in a police cell in the South African capital until a new bail hearing on Tuesday.

His lawyers asked that he be transferred elsewhere but their request was rejected by the judge.
The hearing was delayed for two hours as his defence lawyers objected to the scrum of local and international reporters packed into the courtroom.

Pistorius said nothing during the 40-minute hearing. His father, Henke, and brother, Carl, sat directly behind him in the packed courtroom, occasionally leaning forward to give him a pat on the shoulder.

Pistorius' mother died in 2002 when he was 15 years old - a tragedy that he said drove him into pursuing a full-time sporting career.

Steenkamp was found shot dead in his plush Pretoria home in the early hours of Thursday. Police have given few details of the shooting, other than to say she died of gunshot wounds.

But South African media are reporting that Pistorius shot the 30-year-old four times through a bathroom door.

Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper said she was hit in the head, chest, pelvis and hand.

"The security guards found Pistorius by Steenkamp's body in the bathroom," the paper said, citing a neighbour. "The door had bullet holes right through it."


The arrest of the 26-year-old has stunned a nation that reveres him as a hero who triumphed over adversity to compete with able-bodied athletes at the highest levels of sport.

Initial reports suggested Pistorius may have mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder, but police said neighbours had heard noises before the shots and that there had been previous "domestic" incidents at the house.

South African newspapers plastered the killing across their front pages, relegating a State of the Nation address by President Jacob Zuma in parliament to a distant second.

The coverage reflected shock and dismay at the fall of a sporting hero who commanded rare respect on all sides of South Africa's racial divides.

Callers to morning radio shows expressed remorse at the death of Steenkamp, who had been due to give a talk at a Johannesburg school this week about violence against women.

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