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Pretoria — Four specialists will evaluate murder-accused Oscar Pistorius when he is admitted as a day-patient for mental observation, the North Gauteng High Court ordered yesterday.“The accused will be an outpatient at Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital,” Judge Thokozile Masipa said.
“The evaluation will inquire whether the accused . . . was at the time of the commission of the offence criminally responsible.”
It would also determine if Pistorius could appreciate the “wrongfulness of his actions and act according to that appreciation”.
Pistorius would go to Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital at 09:00 on 26 May and every weekday thereafter. He would stay until 16:00, or until he had been excused, said Masipa.
Three psychiatrists and one clinical psychologist would evaluate Pistorius to determine whether his general anxiety disorder and his disability had an effect on him when he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day last year.
One psychiatrist was appointed by the defence, one by the court, and another by the hospital. Pistorius’s evaluation would not exceed 30 days, she said.
The psychiatric report would be handed to the registrar of the court, the National Prosecuting Authority, and the defence once it had been completed.
Masipa postponed the matter to June 30. She said records of the trial proceedings would be made available to the specialists. — AFP
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