Oscar Pistorius verdict: 'Blade Runner' cleared of murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

 
Emotional reaction: Oscar Pistorius weeps in court

Oscar Pistorius was today cleared of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Reading out her judgment, Judge Thokozile Masipa told the murder trial in Pretoria that the state had failed to prove the charge.

However, the judge could still find Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide or acquit him entirely.

Double amputee Olympic star Pistorius, 27, occasionally wept as the judge read through her thick bundle of findings, but remained more composed than he has seemed during the previous 42 days of his trial.

Trial verdict: Oscar Pistorius arrives at court (Getty)

Earlier, the judge questioned the reliability of several of the state’s witnesses as she began delivering her verdict.

She discounted a large swathe of prosecution evidence, saying neighbours who claimed to have heard Pistorius arguing with Miss Steenkamp, and later her screams, were “unreliable”.

She also discounted scores of phone messages — both loving and argumentative — between the couple as irrelevant to the case.

Oscar Pistorius Trial - In pictures

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But she also condemned Pistorius as an “unreliable” witness.

Behind him, members of his family, including his estranged father Henke, filled the benches. His brother Carl sat in a wheelchair in the aisle of the Pretoria High Court, recovering from a high speed car crash.

They are sitting a few feet away from Miss Steenkamp’s parents, June and Barry, and sister Simone.

Pistorius was charged with murder hours after he fired four bullets at Miss Steenkamp, 29, through a locked lavatory door in his Pretoria home in the early hours of Valentine’s Day last year.

He claimed he fired in panic and terror, fearing she was an intruder.

He denies murder and firearms charges. The case continues.

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