Andy Stenning / Daily Mirror
Oscar Pistorius had acting lessons before standing trial for the murder of his lover Reeva Steenkamp, claims a top journalist.
The Sunday People reports the accusation emerged in an open letter to the blade runner by former South African Sunday Times columnist Jani Allan.
Her claim that a famous actor pal is coaching him comes after Reeva’s mother June suggested Oscar could be acting.
British-born Jani wrote: “I have it from a reliable source you are taking acting lessons for your days in court.
“Your coach has an impossible task.
“Oscar, you are the latest in a long line of faux heroes. Like so many, you have betrayed your people and disappointed your fans.”
Asked about her letter, Jani told The Sunday People: “I have this information from extremely reliable sources.
“I have it on very good authority that Oscar is being coached on his court performance by a close actor friend, who is also famous in South Africa.”
In an interview two weeks ago Reeva’s mother June, 67, said she is still trying to decide whether the sprinter is acting as he defends himself against his charge.
She said: “He has been very dramatic, the vomiting and crying. I think he’s just about keeping himself together.
“I don’t know whether he’s acting.”
Jeni’ scathing letter, first posted last Monday, goes on to compare Oscar to Eugene Terre’Blanche – the murdered far-right white supremacist leader jailed for three years for attempted murder of a black guard.
It continues: “Terre’Blanche was cut from the same cloth.
“He was given to boasting, vain in all things, narcissistic in the extreme and flying into terrible rages when things didn’t go his way.
“I suspect this description fits you.
“Oscar, I look at your mewling and puking in the witness stand.
“You represent everything the West loathes about white South Africans who live extravagant lives in expensive laagers [large security-protected home].
“Your constant and preposterously ridiculous statement that you thought it wasn’t Reeva trapped in the bathroom, but an intruder, opens yet another can of haricots.
“The implication of this is that it would have been more acceptable to shoot an intruder the way you did.
“Execution from behind a closed door.”
Allan, now 61 and living in New Jersey, US, was a household name in South Africa in late 80s and named the “most admired person in South Africa” for her work as a broadcaster, columnist and animal rights campaigner.
The letter to the double London 2012 Paralympic Games gold medal winner continues: “When I first became aware of your fierce competitiveness in the sporting arena, I was admiring.”
Barcroft
Referring to an incident at the London 2012 Paralympics, she added: “Then there were the eruptions of your fury when you thought you weren’t fairly treated.
“I realised long ago you might have been a fast runner but you never have been sportsmanlike.
“Not on the track or off it.”
Jani said she has had a largely positive response to the publication of the letter on her blog.
She added: “From my days reporting in South Africa, I know the type of man Oscar is and I have a sense of that kind of Afrikaner.
“They are lawless and self entitled. After I wrote this the backlash has been amazing.”
However she accepted that not everybody accepted her claims.
She said: “Certain sections of South African society will defend him to the death.”
Pistorius, 27, admits shooting Reeva, 29, on Valentine’s Day last year but denies premeditated murder and two counts related to shooting a gun in public .
The trial resumes on May 5.
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