Just for clarification it was a projectile that was found in the toilet, not an ejected cartridge.
Yes. A "spent bullet" in the words of Mr. Roux, if I recall. Confirmed by Det. Botha.
A rather
significant difference, I would say.
I did point out rather earlier that were a
casing to have been found in the toilet bowl the ceiling would fall in on OP's case faster than he could strap on his blades, but the presence of a slug in there is nothing like as destructive to his narrative. It does not, for instance, place him inside the door with a gun in his hand, where some would like him to be.
Since we're all fessing up to how we feel about innocence or guilt, I should perhaps state at this point that
No, I don't think he's innocent (or if by some freak of nature he
is innocent of the murder charge and guilty "only" of culpable homicide, he nevertheless ought to be locked up for a long time anyway as he's a serious danger to himself and society).
He's either staggeringly, mindbogglingly stupid (and off-the-chart Montana Man paranoid) or he's criminally insane. Neither of these is much to write home about, in my view.
However, by the same token,
No, I definitely DON'T buy into the sort of theories that are being put out there (and here) at the moment on the strength of one article that has not been backed up by any other reliable news source in the course of several days. Unfortunately, while there are plenty out there who have no idea whatsoever of the true provenance of that
Daily Mail story that continues to haunt us, there will be plenty who happily believe, hell YEAH, he smashed her head in with a cricket bat, and will start drawing further conclusions from that...
I'd sooner wait and see.
I should also say I have a certain respect for OP's achievements, but nothing much else: he's not any particular icon as far as I'm concerned.
Aside from the slightly endearing aspects of the disability, he's just another ridiculously overpaid sporting entertainer in my eyes. The two wheelchair athletes I referred to earlier could not even
dream of emulating his earnings from sponsorship or his glamorous lifestyle, and yet they are to my mind no lesser heroes than him. I have no emotional investment whatsoever in his being acquitted.
I'd guess not being South African makes a difference, as he probably has been turned into a local hero, and has also helped the SA "brand" somehow.
Even so, I'm sure there are plenty in that racially-charged country who want to see him fall and fall heavily.
As far as I'm concerned he's also something of a "case" or "meme" or "lab specimen" - just one more 21st century example of an Icarus who was encouraged to fly higher by the baying public and the media and whose eventual steepling fall from a great height is greeted with scorn and derision just as loud as the cheers and the clapping as he climbed up.
Do I think he'll get off? No.
Do I think the bail hearing was completely kosher? Not sure about that.
It's tempting to imagine someone leaning on the prosecution just a
little bit, just enough not to have him banged up in a jail where he could end up dead (either killed or by his own hand) in three months.
South African interests - maybe even at government level - want to be able to limit the damage surrounding Oscar's fall from grace. They won't shy away from sentencing him, as at least then "justice will have been done and seen to have been done" on their own terms. But I do still have a sneaking suspicion they'd have gone to some lengths to ensure he didn't get remanded without bail pending his trial.
And it's a tough call to say if that was "celebrity justice" or not. If you say it was, and also acknowledge that there was a pretty strong possibility of the defendant's being harmed before trial, you might be in danger of saying:
"
Who cares if he dies in jail - he did it anyway."
