Oscar trial: Media warned on theft, behaviour
Journalists covering Oscar Pistorius's murder trial were warned on Friday morning to look after their belongings and not climb over the benches in the High Court in Pretoria.
FILE PHOTO: Journalists work during a break in proceedings in the murder trial of South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius at the High Court in Pretoria. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/Pool
On Thursday a laptop was stolen from an international news crew from a bench outside court room GD. A local radio reporter had her iPad stolen from inside the court room during the lunch break.
“Please don’t leave your things in the court between 1pm and 2pm. It’s not our responsibility to look out for your stuff,” Warrant Officer Etsebeth’s voice boomed to the packed public gallery.
He then continued with a warning to reporters not to climb over the benches in the gallery to get to their seats.
“If you are not going to listen we are going to remove you from this court.”
Pistorius is accused of the murder of his girlfriend, model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse on February 14 last year.
He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to come out and attack him.
He was dropped off outside the court’s main entrance by a silver Land Rover at 9am.
Pistorius is also charged with three contraventions of the Firearms Control Act, one of illegal possession of ammunition and two of discharging a firearm in public.
He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013. On September 30, 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.
– Sapa
