Giving evidence in Pretoria, Professor Jonathan Scholtz said Pistorius was suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and asked the court to consider he had no criminal record prior to being convicted of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
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Pistorius was charged with culpable homicide in October 2014, which carries a five year sentence and is similar to manslaughter in the United States.
“He seems to have given up”, Mr. Scholtz told the hearing in a Pretoria court, where the double-amputee celebrity athlete could face a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Oscar Pistorius is no psychopath and the likelihood of his re-offending is minimal, according to a clinical psychologist called by the defense today at the athlete’s sentencing hearing in South Africa.
For example, Scholtz said Pistorius told him that he had heard an inmate being raped by another, and later saw the body of the alleged victim after he had hanged himself.
However, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said that the athlete had given an hour-long TV interview to ITV which will be shown on June 24.
Meanwhile, Pistorius has not been acting like a broken man, and has confronted one of the officers who investigated his murder of Reeva Steenkamp, the High Court in Pretoria heard yesterday.
Scholtz rejected a prosecution claim that two antidepressant drugs – Molipaxin and Cipralex – found in Pistorius’ cell were “illegal”.
Pistorius, 29, wept in the dock.
He added that Pistorius was traumatised by the sound of a gun, even in a film, and never wants to go near a firearm again.
The defence of Oscar Pistorius argued the Paralympian was mentally unwell and should be in hospital not jail during the opening day of his trial this week. He said he thought she was an intruder-shooting her through the bathroom door four times. In December a year ago, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned his conviction of culpable homicide and referred the matter back to Masipa to determine an appropriate sentence.
The manslaughter conviction was overturned in 2015 by South Africa’s Supreme Court, and Pistorius is now convicted of murder.
Nel said a separate report by a prison psychologist found Pistorius was “verbally violent and aggressive” towards staff.
A lawyer close to the case said the sentencing could take place on Friday.
He was released from prison last October after nearly a year in jail and allowed to serve out the remainder of his initial sentence under house arrest on his uncle’s property in Pretoria.
June Steenkamp and Barry Steenkamp, parents of Reeva Steenkamp, arrive at North Gauteng High Court.
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Pistorius, who made history in 2012 by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics sat calmly on a bench during the testimony, mostly with his head down.
