Oscar charged with assault

A house party thrown by Paralympic sensation Oscar Pistorius went horribly wrong and he ended up spending Saturday night in police cells, charged with assaulting a 19-year-old woman guest.

On Saturday afternoon, the 22- year-old sprinter had friends over at his home in the Silverlakes golf estate in Pretoria. A lovers’ tiff ended with Pistorius — and not the lovers — facing criminal charges.

He is expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court soon, police said.

When The Times called Pistorius after the incident a friend, who did not identify himself, answered the phone and said the athlete had been “seriously jeopardised” and would “take serious action against the cops”.

He refused to comment further.

Pistorius’s agent, Peet van Zyl, said yesterday there was no evidence to suggest the runner assaulted anyone.

“His lawyer had a look at the docket this morning. We will have to wait and see what the prosecutor says when he appears in court, but there are no facts or basis for any criminal procedure or case against him,” Van Zyl said.

Boschkop police spokesman Mirinda Stoltz said the drama started when the girlfriend of one of Pistorius’s friends “started screaming at her boyfriend” and the paralympian “asked them to go and fight outside, not in his house”.

“The friend came back inside and the girl stayed outside. She started kicking Pistorius’s doors,” Stoltz said, adding that the girl then came back inside and “started fighting with Pistorius’s girlfriend”.

“He asked his friend’s girlfriend to go out again. When he closed the door, one of the panels came off and fell on her legs. She suffered mild bruising,” she said.

“She called the cops and they arrested Pistorius and charged him with assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. He spent the night in the Boschkop police cells in Pretoria East.”

Yesterday morning, the charge was changed to common assault. Pistorius was released and warned to appear in court.

Earlier this year, Pistorius was involved in a boating accident on the Vaal River and landed in intensive care.

Police reportedly investigated the possibility that he was drunk at the time of the accident after finding alcohol bottles on his boat when they pulled it from the river. The public prosecutor decided not to prosecute him.