Johannesburg – The former lead investigator in the Oscar Pistorius case told The Star this morning that foreign media had offered $50 000 (R458 000) for a photograph of the toilet door that the athlete shot through when he killed Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day.

Hilton Botha said police were being offered extraordinary amounts of money for pictures of the crime scene.

The former policeman, whose resignation from the SAPS was made public last night, confirmed that an officer at Boschkop police station was offered $50 000 for a picture of the door.

Pistorius has testified that after he shot through the locked door, he tried to kick it open and finally smashed it with a cricket bat so that he could get to his girlfriend.

Botha said the offer had been made by an international media house to “an officer Van der Merwe” who worked on the crime scene. He did not know the officer’s first name.

But it wasn’t just the international media that were clamouring for pictures of the inside of Pistorius’s house and the crime scene. Local media were also offering money to police officers.

Police crime scene tape marks the home of Oscar Pistorius.

REUTERS

Botha said he and other officers who worked on the case were offered between R5 000 and R10 000 a picture by local media houses.

He declined to name which media were involved.

“If that happens (the leaking of photographs), both the State and the defence’s cases could be destroyed,” said Botha.

“I decided at that point that all pictures should be sent off to forensics immediately. That way we had no pictures and there could be no leak.”

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