Oscar Pistorius to ‘look over shoulder’ as he leaves jail amid underworld threat

02 January 2024 , 13:57

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Oscar Pistorius is due to be released later this week (Image: AP)

Oscar Pistorius has been warned by police he will spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder as he prepares to leave prison, it has been claimed.

The Olympian was jailed for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013 before being granted parole in November last year - but could now be a target for underworld figures connected to the victim's late dad Barry.

South African double-amputee Pistorius, 37, has served eight-and-a-half years in prison and is due to leave his adapted cell at the low-security Atteridgeville Correctional Centre in Pretoria on Friday. He will be housed at his uncle Arnold's £2million 12-bed, three-storey mansion in Pretoria’s exclusive Waterkloof suburb. The property and tourism tycoon has armed guards with attack dogs and has installed razor wire fences around the converted Dutch Reformed church.

Pistorius - nicknamed Blade Runner - will live in a five-star cottage on the grounds, which has panic alarms, a gatehouse and armed security. He is reported to have told friends he is looking forward to eating lasagne and watching favourite films Snatch and Full Metal Jacket when he is released.

Pistorius and girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp (AFP/Getty Images)

The athlete wore carbon fibre prosthetic running blades and won two golds and a silver at the 2012 London Paralympics and also competed in the Olympics too in a landmark moment.

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During his murder trial in 2014, two underworld figures made their presence known to Pistorius - Marc Batchelor, a former pro footballer, intimidated him from the public gallery after a feud between them boiled over. Five years later Batchelor was shot dead in a gangland hit. The other shady figure who unsettled Pistorius during his trial was self-confessed contract killer Mikey Schultz. He fixed Pistorius with an intimidating hard stare throughout the proceedings.

Reeva's parents June and Barry Steenkamp (AFP/Getty Images)

A close friend of Reeva’s dad Barry, a racehorse trainer, said his death last September will also have brought Pistorius potential new enemies. The friend, a well-known bookmaker, told The Sun: “It’s common knowledge that Oscar was a target big-time for killing Reeva even before he went into prison, and those enemies have not gone away.

“Reeva’s dad was in horse racing for over 60 years as a jockey and a trainer. Over that period you make a lot of friends, and not all of them in this tough game are nice people. Since Reeva was murdered, all Barry wanted was for Pistorius to admit it.

The prison cell where Pistorius stayed in 2015 (AFP via Getty Images)

"Then he and his wife June could have had closure and come to terms with it. All he wanted was to hear the truth. But Oscar would not give him the truth while he was protected behind bars. But now that he is coming back out into the real world, he could be ‘persuaded’ to tell the truth.”

Bill Schroder, Pistorius’s former headmaster at Pretoria Boys High School, visited him at Atteridgeville four times, and previously said the prisoner fears parole, as he is unsure how the public will respond to seeing him gain his freedom.

Ryan Merrifield