Pistorius cop faces shooting charges

Investigating officer Hilton Botha, who is in charge of the Oscar Pistorius murder case, faces charges over an alleged shooting incident. Source: AFP

THE lead investigating officer has reportedly been taken off Oscar Pistorius's murder case after it was revealed he is facing seven attempted murder charges.

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority said that given the charges against the detective, he "cannot continue".

Botha reportedly opened fire on a bunch of terrified passengers in a mini-bus in a drunken shooting incident with three other officers in 2011.

His shock removal from the case comes as Pistorius arrived at court for the third day of his bail hearing after being charged last week with shooting dead his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Botha, who drew ridicule yesterday for his bungling testimony during Pistorius's bail hearing, has denied he and the other officers were drinking.

He told Eyewitness News shortly after news of the charges broke that he and the two officers were investigating a case and tried to pull the taxi mini-bus over.

When the driver refused to stop, they shot at the wheels, he said. 

Botha said he was convinced the attempted murder case against him had been withdrawn and only found out it had been reinstated when another officer told him, Eyewitness News reports.

Police spokesman Nevile Malila told Eyewitness News: "There was a decision to taken by the DPP's office to charge the members, each one of them with seven counts of attempted murder. That was the number of people that were in the taxi"

South African journalists and overseas correspondents are providing up-to-the-minute coverage of the Pistorius murder case from both inside and outside the courtroom via Twitter.

Earlier today, Malila said Botha was a seasoned detective and there were no plans to take him off the murder case. But it was revealed a short time that he has been dumped from the case.

The prosecution case against Pistorius began to unravel yesterday with revelations of a series of police blunders and investigating officer Botha's admission that authorities have no evidence challenging the double-amputee Olympian's claim he killed his girlfriend accidentally.

Detective Botha's often confused testimony left prosecutors rubbing their heads in frustration as he misjudged distances and said testosterone - banned for professional athletes in some cases - was found at the scene, only to be later contradicted by the prosecutor's office.

The second day of what was supposed to be a mere bail hearing almost resembled a full-blown trial for the 26-year-old runner, with his lawyer, Barry Roux, tearing into Botha's testimony step by step during cross examination.

Police, Botha acknowledged, left a 9 mm slug from the barrage that killed Reeva Steenkamp inside a toilet and lost track of illegal ammunition found inside the house.

Investigating officer Hilton Botha - who is himself facing attempted murder charges - sits inside the court witness box during Oscar Pistorius's bail hearing. Source: AP

And the detective himself walked through the crime scene without wearing protective shoe covers, potentially contaminating the area.

Authorities, Roux asserted, were selectively taking "every piece of evidence to try to extract the most possibly negative connotation and present it to the court.''

The case has riveted South Africa - and the world - with journalists and the curious crowding into the brick-walled courtroom where Pistorius, dubbed the Blade Runner for his prosthetic legs, faces a charge of premeditated murder in the Valentine's Day slaying.

Pistorius says he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder and shot her out of fear, while prosecutors say he planned the killing and attacked her as she cowered behind a locked bathroom door.

Yesterday's hearing seemed to start out well for the prosecution, with Botha offering new details of the shooting that appeared to call into question Pistorius's account of the moments leading up to the 29-year-old model's death.

Ballistic evidence, he said, showed the bullets that killed her had been fired from a height, supporting the prosecution's assertion that Pistorius was wearing prosthetic legs when he took aim at the bathroom door. The athlete has maintained he was standing only on his stumps, and felt vulnerable and frightened as he opened fire from a low position.

Projecting a diagram of the bedroom and the bathroom, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said it showed Pistorius had to walk past his bed to get to the bathroom and could not have done so without seeing that Steenkamp was not asleep there.

"There's no other way of getting there,'' Nel said in disputing Pistorius's claim that he had no idea Steenkamp was no longer in bed when he pumped four bullets into the bathroom door, striking her with three.

Botha backed the prosecutor up, saying the holster for Pistorius' 9 mm pistol was found under the left side of the bed, where Steenkamp slept, and it would have been impossible for Pistorius to get the gun without checking to see if she was there.

"I believe that he knew that Reeva was in the bathroom and he shot four shots through the door,'' the detective said.

Botha described how bullets struck Steenkamp in the head and shattered her right arm and hip, eliciting sobs from Pistorius, who held his head in hands.

However, when asked if Steenkamp's body showed "any pattern of defensive wounds'' or bruising from an assault, Botha said "no.'' He again responded "no'' when asked if investigators found anything inconsistent with Pistorius' version of events, though he later said nothing contradicted the police version either.

Testimony began with the prosecutor telling the court that before the shooting, a neighbor heard "non-stop'' shouting between 2am. and 3am at Pistorius's upscale home in a gated community in the capital, Pretoria.

However, Botha later said under cross-examination that the witness was in a house 550 metres away, possibly out of earshot. He cut that estimate in half when questioned again by the prosecutor, as confusion reigned for much of his testimony.

At one point, Botha told the court that police found syringes and two boxes of testosterone in Pistorius' bedroom - testimony the prosecution later withdrew, saying it was too early to identify the substance, which was still being tested.

"It is not certain (what it is) until the forensics'' are completed, Medupe Simasiku, a spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecution Agency, told The Associated Press. It's not clear if it was "a legal or an illegal medication for now.''

The defense also disputed the claim. "It is an herbal remedy,'' Roux said. "It is not ... a banned substance.''

Still, Botha offered potentially damaging details about Pistorius's past, saying the athlete was once involved in an accidental shooting at a restaurant in Johannesburg and asked someone else "to take the rap.''

South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius has enjoyed a better day in court, after a police detective testified that there was nothing 'inconsistent' with the athlete's story.

The runner also threatened men on two separate occasions, Botha said, allegedly telling one he'd "break his legs.''

The detective said police found two iPhones in Pistorius's bathroom and two BlackBerrys in his bedroom, and none had been used to phone for help. Guards at the gated community did call the athlete, Botha said, and all he said was: "I'm all right,'' as he wept uncontrollably.

Roux later suggested that a fifth phone, not collected by the police, was used by Pistorius to call for help.

The question now is whether Botha's troubled testimony will be enough to convince Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair to keep Pistorius in prison until trial.

While Pistorius faces the harshest bail requirements under South African law, the magistrate has said he would consider loosening them based on testimony in the hearing.

More to come

with wires

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