John Carlin is the guy who is writing a book about poor Oscar Pistorius and who has become a firm family friend this past year.
I won't bother supplying the title (suffice to say he chose the words of Oscar Pistorius for a title), anyone desperate to read will find it I am sure as good old Uncle Arnold will promote it for sure when the time for this arrives.
It is clearly going to be a paint job for Pistorius and his family - Oscar the victim!
How poor Oscar has suffered. How he needs a new start in life blah blah blah!
Thompson:
You’ve got close to Oscar Pistorius over the last year or so, and the family. What do you sense has been running through his mind through this very difficult period of his life?
Carlin:
Well I think you can't begin to underestimate the torment that he has endured at all kinds of different levels, the obvious level he does feel immense remorse.
For people to imagine he is some kind of cold callous monster it is really remiss. I think remorse will dog him till his dying day.
And then of course at the same time you’ve got the prospect of jail. He's someone who was, in a country where everyone is fearful of crime, I think he was more fearful than other people, and the prospect of going to jail with the people who he’s been terrified of is also dreadful.
And then of course just the whole blow to his reputation which was sky high. Plus the fact what this trial has done... has been... removed the sort of armour plating that he has constructed for himself ever since he was a kid, very much at the bidding of his mother who said 'you know you are not disabled you are as strong and able as anybody else.'
And he reached the peak of that when he competed in the Olympic Games against able-bodied runners. Building up his armour plating. And what we’ve been seeing now in the trial, is bit by bit the armour plating being removed, and you see this soft vulnerable core within this vulnerable man who weeps and retches and reveals that far from being this sort of superhero that he was perceived to be he is actually much more wretched and vulnerable and weak than people have imagined him to be.
So it’s been you know a whole mix of emotions, and he’s had an absolutely appalling year, and you know for those who are now unhappy at the verdict of manslaughter you know I can understand that, but he has certainly undergone tremendous punishment already and will continue to do so for a long time irrespective of what the sentence is and what have you.
Thompson
The International Paralympic Committee today talked about if he wants to come back and start running again, they wouldn’t stand in his way, they'd welcome him back he's seen an inspirational figure. I mean is that in his mind at all do you sense at the moment?
Carlin
I don’t think that’s in his mind at all right now. And I think that he's sort of become fairly reconciled in the last year to the notion that it's not going to be back the way it was.
He destroyed Reeva’s life, and he destroyed his own life certainly as a sort of celebrity athlete.
I mean imagine whatever the Paralympic Committee might say, the controversy when he goes to run in Manchester or whatever I think its going to be difficult it's got to conceive of something else. It will be the biggest challenge of his life whether he goes to jail or not. He has to reconstruct himself again anew.
Thomson
And what has been very noticeable, has been the support and presence of this large Pistorius family around him all of the time. Its obviously been very important to him?
Carlin
Very, yes! I remember just on the day before he began his cross examination- an absolutely harrowing experience for him when Gerrie Nel just sort of reduced him to putty- talking to the family. I was having breakfast with them at a place just down the road here, various uncles and aunts, and people, and of course they were on absolute tenterhooks but at the same time one of the aunts... his aunt said to me – 'you know this experience has brought us all closer together as a family and it has brought out the best of us you know the solidarity and the loyalty that we all feel.' So you know they’re all striving desperately to extract a positive from this experience and you know, and certainly when the verdict came in today – which we already kind of had a clear indication of yesterday – there was you know, enormous relief, and not quite cause for celebration. But above all, a terribly important thing - not to underestimate the degree to which it is so so important to Oscar Pistorius- that the judge has answered the question which has been on millions of lips around the world, namely did he intentionally kill her? But the judge has said, NO he didn't, and did so in a pretty conclusive way.
I don’t think Gerrie Nel is going to challenge that part of it if it comes to appeal.
For him he's been absolved of deliberately killing Reeva - is of immense significance. And almost also I would say of parallel significance - he will deal with jail if it comes later on, but this was just a huge moment for him.
END
The huge moment for him was not being 'absolved of deliberately killing Reeva' it was KNOWING he wasn't going to jail!
Let us not confuse the two!
And don't pretend either - that Pistorius will deal with jail if it comes later.
It's not coming later - we ALL know that!
And as for Carlin saying 'Pistorius destroyed Reeva's life and destroyed his own life.'
He did not destroy Reeva's life - He took her life! He took her from her parents, her family and friends.
His own life - it is not destroyed - to him just a blip!
I don't doubt for a moment the Pistorius family were celebrating last night!
And an aside - What was all that about the wheelchair bound brother being wheeled into court - the guy who by all accounts is as crazy and out of control as Oscar Pistorius himself. If I recall correctly at the time Pistorius shot Miss Steenkamp this brother was on trial too for some other offences!
Seems the wealth of the Pistorius family keeps them ALL out of jail!
Oscar and his Annus Horribilis - I'll bet he's getting over it already!
L-azzeri-lies-in-the-sun.com
13th September 2014