Pistorius' Mental Health Key To Murder Trial
Updated: 10:05pm UK, Tuesday 20 May 2014
By Emma Hurd, Sky News Correspondent
On Monday morning Oscar Pistorius will make the short journey from his uncle's house in Pretoria to register as an outpatient at the Weskoppies psychiatric hospital by 9am.
The imposing red-brick institution was built in the late 1800s when it was still referred to as a "lunatic asylum". In these more enlightened times it is termed a centre for "psychiatric treatment and assessment" but it also remains a place of incarceration for the criminally insane.
It is a place few South Africans would choose to visit, but - on the orders of the judge in his murder trial - the athlete will spend seven hours a day at the hospital for a period of up to 30 days while his mental condition is assessed.
Those familiar with the process say the evaluation will be conducted by a team - in this case three psychiatrists and a psychologist - who will explore the "patient's" entire mental history from childhood.
They may also choose to interview friends and relatives. The focus will be on establishing whether Pistorius suffers from any disorder that may mean he cannot be held criminally responsible for his actions.
The staff at Weskoppies are used to evaluating defendants in criminal trials but the athlete's referral is far from routine and not just because of his fame.
Pistorius has, unusually, been permitted to attend the hospital as an outpatient, with Judge Thokozile Masipa explaining that she "didn't want to punish him twice" by making him stay at a psychiatric unit for a month.
More striking is the timing of the psychiatric assessment - almost at the end of the trial rather than right at the start.
It might not have happened at all if the defence had not chosen to call psychiatrist Merryl Vorster to tell the court that the athlete suffered from 'generalised anxiety disorder'.
The prosecution leapt on her diagnosis and her claim that it might have affected his actions on the night he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, demanding an independent assessment and the judge agreed.
The trial is on hold now until June 30 when the psychiatrists will report back to the court. Their verdict on the runner's mental health will determine whether the case can continue.
It seems unlikely that they will declare him mentally unfit, but there have been so many twists and turns in this trial so far that nothing can be ruled out.
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