Date set for Pistorius murder trial

Double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius has been sent for trial charged with murdering his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day.

A Pretoria court set March 3 next year for the start of the case against Pistorius, who has said he shot Reeva Steenkamp by mistake, believing she was an intruder in his home.

Prosecutors, who allege he killed her after an argument, submitted a list of more than 100 witnesses.

Pistorius (aged 26) appeared in court for the indictment, and wept and held hands with his relatives before proceedings started.

The case will be sent to the High Court in Pretoria, the South African capital, where a judge will preside over the trial and ultimately pronounce the athlete innocent or guilty.

South Africa does not have trial by jury.

The mandatory sentence for someone convicted of premeditated murder is life with a minimum of 25 years in prison, meaning if Pistorius is found guilty, he will be older than 50, at least, when he leaves prison. There is no death penalty.

Police announced this month that they had completed their six-month investigation into Ms Steenkamp’s killing at Pistorius’ home in Pretoria.

South Africa’s national police commissioner’s office said detectives, forensic experts, ballistics experts, psychologists and technology experts all worked on the case and are confident that they have the evidence to convict Pistorius.

The most telling evidence may be in records on phones found at Pistorius’ home and through examination of the toilet cubicle door through which he shot four bullets, hitting Ms Steenkamp three times.

The angle or trajectory of the bullets could show if Pistorius was standing on his stumps when he shot, as he says, or if he was on his prosthetics, as the prosecution maintains – a marked difference in the two accounts.

Pistorius was seen just twice in public between the time he was granted bail on February 22 and a previous appearance in court on June 4.

His family had announced he would return to a “low-key” track routine and he was seen jogging on his regular practice facility in late June.