Pistorius prepares to tell the world what happened

The anticipation of a packed courtroom fizzled out on Thursday when the athlete’s murder trial was unexpectedly postponed.

Mr Pistorius, 27, shot his girlfriend, Steenkamp, 29, through a toilet door in his home in the Silver Woods Estate in Pretoria on February 14 last year. Mr Pistorius claims he thought she was an intruder.
"This case cannot proceed today and next week as one of my assessors is unwell," Judge Thokozile Masipa said shortly after 9:30am on Thursday.
Ms Masipa postponed the case to April 7 for the court to be "constituted properly". Continue.


The ill assessor is Janette Henzen du Toit, the manager of Legal Aid South Africa in Johannesburg.
Attorney William Booth, who specialises in criminal litigation, said if an assessor becomes permanently unavailable due to illness or death, a case wouldn’t necessarily have to start again.
"If there is no objection from the prosecution or defence, the case shoulld be able to carry on with one assessor. One has to look at whether it could cause any prejudice to the accused — whether Pistorius thinks two assessors may give him a fairer trial," Mr Booth said.
The state closed its case on Tuesday and Mr Pistorius was expected to take the stand on Thursday after his defence team confirmed he would testify.
Mr Booth said the defence "might be quite relieved" to have another week to prepare.
"In the next week, the defence team will be spending many hours making sure Pistorius is completely and utterly prepared. They will prepare him for his testimony in chief but also for the questions the prosecution is likely to ask him.
"A lot rests on his evidence. If he comes across as a good witness and the court believes his version is reasonably possibly true, the court may accept his version."
The courtroom was packed with journalists and members of the public on Thursday in anticipation of Mr Pistorius’s testimony.
Steenkamp’s mother June sat in the front bench, while Steenkamp’s best friend, Gina Myers and Trish Taylor, the mother of Mr Pistorius’s ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor, also attended.
After Mr Pistorius’s arrest last year, Trish Taylor wrote in a Facebook post that she was glad her daughter was no longer in Mr Pistorius’s "claws".
On the Pistorius side of the room, Oscar’s brother Carl was in attendance after being mostly absent since the first week.
Mr Pistorius, in a black suit and wearing his glasses, looked composed and prepared as he entered the dock.