Its a tale of falling from grace to grass, from being on top of the world into sinking into abyss of doom, that’s aptly the story of South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius the postal boy of paralympic sports.
A ‘tense and bewildered’ Oscar Pistorius was last locked in a single cell as he began a five-year jail term on the secure hospital wing of one of South Africa’s most notorious prisons.
Dressed in the regulation orange uniform of Pretoria Central – where gang culture and violence are rife – the jailed Paralympian was visited by the facility’s chaplain and psychologist. Pistorius, 29, had been driven to the prison unshackled and alone in the back of an armoured police vehicle, with sirens blazing and armed guards clinging to the sides. He was jailed for five years for killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp as she cowered behind his bathroom door on Valentine’s Day last year – but he could spend as little as ten months behind bars.
It was decided against transporting the disgraced sprinter the mile or so to the sprawling facility along with other defendants from Pretoria’s High Court as this is the most dangerous time for any new inmate to be on the move. Any prisoner who could claim to have harmed the ‘Blade Runner’ while in transit would undoubtedly win welcome notoriety within the prison gang culture which rewards acts of violence.
The facility’s area commissioner Zebilon Monama confirmed Pistorius had been escorted to his single cell, after surrendering his dark suit and shoes, having his fingerprints taken and been assessed as a candidate for the medical wing.
The 5 years sentencing and the fact that Pistorius could spend as little as 10 months in jail was highly condemned by many.
Meanwhile,The International Paralympics Committee has ruled that Oscar Pistorius will not be allowed to return to competition until 2019 after he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for killing of his Reeva Steekamp. An IPC spokesman confirmed that Pistorius, the first athlete to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics in London in 2012, would be banned from the Rio Games even if he had been released on licence by that point.
