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| *Oscar |
OSCAR Pistorius reached a settlement with a woman over an
alleged assault case from 2009 because his lawyers advised him he could not
fight civil and criminal legal battles at the same time, the spokeswoman for
the Olympic athlete said on Wednesday.
Double-amputee runner Pistorius, who goes on trial on a
murder charge next month, was arrested and accused of causing an injury to a
guest at a party at his house five years ago after allegedly slamming a door
and then punching it.
Pistorius family spokeswoman Anneliese Burgess said the
settlement agreement was finalised late last year with Cassidy Taylor-Memmory.
She accused Pistorius of assault in the September 2009 incident. Ms
Taylor-Memmory was reportedly injured in the leg when the door broke.
“The reasoning for the settlement being that Oscar was
advised by his lawyers that he could not run a civil and criminal matter (side)
by side,’’ Ms Burgess said in a statement to The Associated Press. The matter
had “no bearing’’ on Pistorius’ murder trial, Ms Burgess said, and was settled
“solely for the purposes of expediency.’’
Ms Burgess did not give any details of the settlement.
Pistorius will go on trial from March 3 on a charge of
premeditated murder for the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his
home last February 14, and also faces other firearm-related charges at the
trial at a high court in Pretoria. He denies murder and claims he shot
Steenkamp by mistake after believing she was a dangerous nighttime intruder in
his bathroom.
Pistorius’ lawyers are also in negotiations with the family
of Steenkamp over another out-of-court settlement ahead of his murder trial.
Regarding the 2009 case, Pistorius had launched a counter
claim against Ms Taylor-Memmory, accusing her of making up the assault. He said
he was arrested without reason.
Eyewitness News quoted her as saying Pistorius agreed to pay
her legal fees and also drop his US$200,000 ($222,000) counter claim against
her.
“I agreed to it because I was so tired of it weighing me
down,’’ Ms Taylor-Memmory told Eyewitness News, claiming she was harassed by
the media and the public and received hate mail. “It became so difficult at a
stage that I needed a bodyguard when I went out in public due to all the hate
rants.’’
The 2009 arrest is when Pistorius is believed to have first
come across former detective Hilton Botha, one of the first police
investigators to examine the scene after Pistorius shot Steenkamp last
Valentine’s Day - a year ago on Friday.
After Steenkamp’s shooting death, police said there had been
previous incidents “of a domestic nature’’ at Pistorius’ upscale Pretoria house without
elaborating on them
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