OSCAR Pistorius is attending church regularly to find peace in God, ahead of his return to court this week, according to his family.
The Olympic and Paralympic runner is set to return to the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court Tuesday morning for the 10-minute hearing, which will mark Pistorius’s first formal public appearance since he was granted bail in February.
“He’s been going to church and people from the church are visiting him,” Oscar’s aunt Lois Pistorius said of the “Blade Runner”, according to The Guardian.
“He attends the English service and I attend the Afrikaans service.”
“At home he’s reading the bible a lot. If you’ve got a purpose in life and you believe in God, it gives you a reason to understand things when they’re not going smoothly because you rely on God who is everlasting and always there. Humans make mistakes. None of us is perfect,” Pistorius’s 55-year-old aunt explained.
“He rarely goes out. It’s very difficult for him. He reads a lot of stuff, newspapers, the Bible, he’s doing some work on the computer.”
“He’s got a strong character and he’s exercising a lot. We brought in some equipment for him to exercise on. A family member or two and friends come and join him,” she continued.
Pistorius was accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his home in Pretoria, South Africa, on Valentine’s Day.
The athlete admitted to shooting her four times through the locked bathroom door, but claimed that he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder.
The prosecutors, however, claim that it was a premeditated murder, alleging that Pistorius took the time to put on his prosthetic legs and walk all the way from the bed to the bathroom door before shooting her.
Last week, graphic photos of the crime scene were leaked by British media Sky News.
“We were shaken by the graphic images, leaked into the public domain this week, of the accident scene at Oscar’s house,” Pistorius’s family expressed their shock in a statement Sunday.
“It has always been our plea that the legal process be allowed its run its course with integrity,” the Pistorius family continued. “The leaking of evidential material into the public domain, before the court case, does not advance this process.”
Lois expressed her desire for Oscar to run again, saying, “It happened on 14 February. Where are we now? Three and a half months later. Things must go back to normal. We hope he will compete again one day because he’s got the natural talent.” Crossmap
