Oscar Pistorius has been condemned to months, if not years, of dealing with a real estate agent so he can sell his luxury Pretoria house in order to cover the legal fees required to mount a so-far questionable defence for the murder trial in which he stands accused of killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp by shooting her four times through a locked bathroom door.
According to the Guardian, defence lawyer Bryan Webber released a statement overnight designed to “pre-empt speculation in the public and the media” saying “It has become necessary to sell [the house] in the Silver Woods Country Estate in Pretoria in order for him to raise the necessary funds to cover his increasing legal costs” required of a trial of heretofore unprecedented length.
Pistorius’s defence costs are estimated at $15,000 – $20,000 AUD per day to retain at least three full-time lawyers, in addition to ballistics, forensics, and crime scene reconstruction experts. Senior defence barrister Barry Roux, who has so far tried to exonerate his client by claiming he screams like a woman, is reported to be charging a $5,000 daily rate for sound legal counsel.
“Pistorius has never returned to his home in Silver Woods since the tragedy of 14 February 2013,” said Webber, before adding that “Mr Pistorius cannot contemplate ever returning to live there again”, failing to add something along the lines of ‘so, really, how could anybody conceive of living there again.’
The real estate agent who will never see her commission, Ansie Louw, told the AFP that the house will be sold by means of a closed auction with a starting price of five million rand in order to deter opportunistic creeps.
The house is described as having “a minimalist design of white walls, brown stone tiled floors and steel balustrades.”
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via The Guardian, SMH
Photo: AFP via Getty
