Oscar Pistorius to ‘look over shoulder’ as he leaves jail amid threats from underworld figures connected to victim’s dad

1 year ago 6

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OLYMPIC hero-turned-killer Oscar Pistorius is packed and ready to feel the fresh air of freedom after 3,108 days behind bars.

But in reality he is only swapping a jail cell for life in an armed fortress, after police warned him he will forever be a target for underworld figures and angry friends of his victim Reeva Steenkamp’s late father Barry.

Oscar Pistorius is freed from jail after 3,108 days behind bars[/caption]

Pistorius killed his model lover Reeva Steenkamp, who had starred in Maxim and FHM magazines[/caption]

The victim’s parents Barry and June during the trial with a snap of murdered daughter Reeva[/caption]

The athlete is swapping a jail cell for life in an armed fortress, after police warned him he will forever be a target for underworld figures[/caption]

South African double-amputee ex-sprinter Pistorius, 37, was granted parole in November after serving eight-and-a-half years in prison for shooting dead his lover Reeva on Valentine’s Day 2013.

And on Friday he will fold up his orange prison uniform for the last time and leave it on the bed in his specially adapted cell at the low-security Atteridgeville Correctional Centre in Pretoria.

Inside, he had some protection, with a dozen inmates who he considered trusted friends and special measures to ensure his safety.

Now he will have to face death threats without them, instead relying for protection on his uncle Arnold, who is to house him at his £2million, three-storey mansion in Pretoria’s exclusive Waterkloof suburb.

Panic alarms

Tycoon Arnold, who made millions from property, mining and tourism, has hired armed guards with attack dogs and has erected razor wire and electric fences around the 12-bedroom converted Dutch Reformed church to try to keep his favourite nephew safe.

Pistorius, who won two golds and a silver at the 2012 London Paralympics — and competed in the Olympics too — will live in a five-star cottage in the grounds, complete with panic alarms, a front gatehouse and armed security protecting the rear.

He has told friends he is looking forward to home-cooked lasagne for his first freedom meal in the fortified cottage. He also wants to re-watch his favourite movies, such as Snatch and Full Metal Jacket.

But while Pistorius wants to return to normality, Arnold, who has been more of a father figure to Pistorius than his real dad Henke, is taking the threats very seriously.

Ten years on, public outrage at the killing still runs high, as do feelings both for and against Pistorius — whose legs were amputated below the knee as a baby due to a birth defect.

He then became the first disabled runner in Olympic history to compete in carbon fibre prosthetic running blades against able-bodied athletes.

During his murder trial in 2014, two notorious underworld figures made their presence known to Pistorius.

One, Marc Batchelor, a former pro footballer, intimidated him from the public gallery after a feud between them boiled over. Five years later Batchelor was shot dead in a gangland hit.

The other shady figure who unsettled Pistorius during his trial was self-confessed contract killer and notorious underworld face Mikey Schultz.

He fixed Pistorius with an intimidating hard stare throughout the proceedings.

A close friend of Reeva’s dad Barry, a racehorse trainer, said his death last September will also have brought Pistorius potential new enemies.

The friend, a well-known bookmaker, said: “It’s common knowledge that Oscar was a target big-time for killing Reeva even before he went into prison, and those enemies have not gone away.

“Reeva’s dad was in horse racing for over 60 years as a jockey and a trainer. Over that period you make a lot of friends, and not all of them in this tough game are nice people.

“Since Reeva was murdered, all Barry wanted was for Pistorius to admit it.

“Then he and his wife June could have had closure and come to terms with it. All he wanted was to hear the truth.

“But Oscar would not give him the truth while he was protected behind bars but now that he is coming back out into the real world again he could be ‘persuaded’ to tell the truth.”

Pistorius’s home where Reeva was shot dead on Valentine’s Day 2013[/caption]

The athlete’s bathroom door marked with bullet holes[/caption]

Pistorius was convicted of shooting the 29-year-old model and paralegal four times with a 9mm Parabellum pistol as she cowered behind the bathroom door at his Pretoria home.

The millionaire athlete claimed he had woken in the early hours and thought a burglar had broken in, then he hobbled to the bathroom on his stumps and, fearing an attack, opened fire through the closed door, with deadly consequences.

Reeva, a former FHM and Maxim magazine pin-up, suffered horrific injuries and died instantly.

Photos of the blood-soaked bathroom and Reeva’s body shown in court made Pistorius vomit.

Her shattered family believe Pistorius deliberately murdered her after a row in which she threatened to leave him.

He was found not guilty of murder but convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison for just six years.

He spent his first year behind bars in the hell-hole of Kgosi Mampuru II top-security prison, which houses South Africa’s worst criminals, but lived in the hospital wing where gang members could not get to him.

Pistorius was so terrified of being attacked or poisoned that he only ever ate tinned food which he had bought himself at the prison shop.

He was never allowed out with the general population of the jail.

An appeal by prosecutors was upheld and his conviction was upgraded to murder, with the sentence increased to 13 years and five months, on top of time served.

In 2016 Pistorius was moved to Atteridgeville jail, where he was even given his own bath and toilet to avoid being attacked in the communal showers by members of the brutal Numbers gang, who rule all of South Africa’s prisons.

Behind bars Pistorius turned to religion and took weekly Bible classes.

He also helped illiterate prisoners read their mail and write letters and was allowed his own allotment to grow vegetables.

Bill Schroder, Pistorius’s former headmaster at Pretoria Boys High School, visited him at Atteridgeville four times, and exclusively told The Sun that Pistorius fears parole.

He said: “He spoke about his fears about how he will be treated by the public when he is out, as he knows he has those who support him but he knows there are many others who don’t.

“He fears for his safety and being attacked if he just takes a walk down to the shops or a bar.

“Oscar worries about simple things like the reaction if he walks into a restaurant. Will he be ignored or acknowledged? Will he be abused or even attacked?

“He has been offered a safe place in Italy where he has some family but under the terms of his parole, he can’t leave the country.

“He’s lost a lot of weight as he cannot train any more but he has found religion and tries hard not to upset anybody.”

Despite his doubts about Pistorius’s innocence, Mr Schroder, 79, agreed to visit him in prison, and said: “I will always answer a call for help from a former pupil.

“You have to remember, Oscar had a tough time, having had both legs amputated at 11 months. His mother died when he was 15 and his father was never there for him.

“By the time he was 16 or 17, Oscar was arrogant and narcissistic. I had always thought he was an accident waiting to happen but it shook me when I heard he had shot Reeva.

“When we met (in prison) it was very emotional and we both hugged and cried. I was surprised to find he had a big beard and that he was chain-smoking.

“He didn’t really bring up Reeva in depth but when he touched on it he insisted it was an accident.

“As to what did or didn’t happen was like the elephant in the room.

“Having followed the trial I found it hard to believe that it was an accident, but I decided to stay neutral as his story had a degree of plausibility — albeit a low degree.”

Mr Schroder added: “He was desperate to be forgiven by her parents. He was more concerned about forgiveness than getting parole.

“If he’d resolved things with her parents it would have made things easier for him on his release.”

But a Steenkamp family friend said Pistorius should not expect forgiveness — and issued a stark warning about his safety.

They said: “Oscar will get the shock of his life when he is back out in the real world.

“It’s a very different world where gender-based violence is now taken far more seriously.

“Friends who were once perhaps very close to him may now look the other way when they see him, or even call him out.

“I don’t know if he will be able to cope with no longer being the centre of attention and the superstar everybody wanted to be around. He will always be looking over his shoulder.”

Reeva’s mother, June, said before Pistorius’s successful parole hearing in November that her husband Barry had died of a broken heart.

She added: “I’m not convinced Oscar has been rehabilitated.

“That requires someone to engage honestly with the full truth of his crime and the consequences thereof.

“Nobody can claim to have remorse if they’re not able to engage fully with the truth.”