Pistorius lead detective faces attempted murder charges

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PRETORIA: The lead detective in the Oscar Pistorius investigation is himself facing seven charges of attempted murder, police said yesterday, dealing a stunning blow to the prosecution case against the South African star sprinter.

Police made the sensational announcement as Pistorius, 26, arrived for the third day of a bail hearing over the Valentine’s Day shooting of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Detective Hilton Botha, whose testimony was challenged by defence attorneys on Wednesday, is facing charges for shooting at a minibus taxi in 2009, police said.

“We were only informed yesterday that attempted murder charges against Hilton Botha have been reinstated,” police spokesman Neville Malila told AFP.

Pistorius’s lawyers had torn into Botha’s police work at Wednesday’s hearing, undermining his witnesses and forcing him to agree that the Olympian’s version of events fitted the crime scene.

“It sounds consistent,” Botha told the court.

Prosecutors allege it was a premeditated killing, but the Olympic and Paralympic hero has said he mistook 29-year-old Steenkamp for an intruder when he shot repeatedly through a locked bathroom door in the dead of night and did not intend to kill her.

The law graduate and cover girl was found on Valentine’s Day by medics covered in bloodied towels and wearing white shorts and a black vest, with bullet wounds to her head, elbow and hip. — AFP