A South African court on Wednesday heard two depictions of athlete Oscar Pistorius, with his defence lawyer describing him as a vulnerable and frightened double-amputee who fired in panic.
In same hearing, the prosecution counsel said that the accused intentionally shot to kill.
The court in Pretoria has been preparing this week to re-sentence the 29-year-old for the killing of Reeva Steenkamp after an appeals court changed his initial manslaughter conviction into murder.
Pistorius fired four shots at his girlfriend through a locked toilet door at his home in Pretoria in the early hours of February 14, 2013.
The 29-year old model died at the scene.
The judge, Thokozile Masipa, accepted his version that he mistook her for a burglar, and sentenced him to five years.
The verdict was overturned by the Court of Appeal in December and Masipa is now due to review the sentence.
The sentencing proceedings had been expected to conclude on Friday, but Masipa announced she would only make the sentence public on July 6.
During the court session broadcast live by the television channel eNCA, Masipa lifted a ban on the publication of five photos of Steenkamp’s body at the request of prosecutor Gerrie Nel.
The ban had been imposed to protect the family.
However, Steenkamp’s father, Barry, told the court that the photos should be made public to show the world how much she suffered and to prevent such events from happening again.
Defence lawyer Barry Roux said that the double-amputee Olympic sprinter felt vulnerable on his stumps and feared for his life when hearing noise from the bathroom at night.
To stress his point, Roux made Pistorius – who seemed to be on the verge of tears – take off his prostheses in court and walk on his stumps.
He said Pistorius had completed anger management programmes, that imprisonment was difficult for disabled people.
He said that the athlete felt community service could put him “back into society.”
Pistorius had already paid heavily for killing Steenkamp, Roux stressed.
“He lost his future with his loved one”, the lawyer said.
“The accused has paid physically, losing his psychological health, financially, emotionally, socially, he is vilified.
He is a broken man’’, Roux said.
He said that Pistorius was punishing himself for the rest of his life far more than any court can punish him.
The prosecution lawyer, Gerrie Nel, argued for a 15-year prison sentence, which is normally the minimum for murder in South Africa.
“Even if Pistorius thought he was firing at an intruder, he nevertheless committed murder’’, the prosecutor stressed.
Nel rejected the image of Pistorius as vulnerable, saying he had developed coping skills.
The athlete fired at the door knowing the person behind it could not escape, the prosecutor said.
Dubbed Blade Runner, Pistorius soared to international fame after becoming the first amputee to compete against able-bodied athletes in the 2012 Olympic Games.
Pistorius’ lower legs were amputated due to a congenital defect when he was less than one year old.
He will be sentenced on July 6, Judge Thokozile Masipa announced on Wednesday.
The sentencing proceedings in the South African court had initially been expected to conclude on Friday.
In a twist, the judge adjourned the case to July for judgement.
