Reeva Steenkamp (Startraksphoto.com)
Hilton Botha (AP)
SMITTEN: Reeva Steenkamp spoke glowingly of Oscar Pistorius in a just-published magazine interview conducted just days before he shot her. (
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The bungling lead detective in the “Blade Runner” murder investigation was booted yesterday after cops revealed the veteran cop faces attempted-murder charges.
Hilton Botha was replaced as lead detective in the Oscar Pistorius case — in which the legless Olympic runner is accused of premeditated murder for gunning down his stunning model girlfriend — after prosecutors revealed they reopened an investigation into a 2011 incident in which Botha and two other cops are accused of drunkenly opening fire on a taxi carrying seven people.
Botha has denied he was drunk at the time and said he and other officers were trying to stop the vehicle while pursuing a murder suspect.
Prosecutors in Pretoria, South Africa, had dropped the charges against Botha last year but revived them on Feb. 4.
Neither the police department nor Botha learned until Wednesday about the renewed investigation, a police spokesman said.
The stunning move came amid a week of missteps by Botha, who tripped all over himself on the witness stand during Day 3 of the hearing to decide whether Pistorius should be granted bail while he awaits trial for killing Reeva Steenkamp.
Botha backed up the prosecution’s claims that Pistorius knowingly gunned down Steenkamp — opening fire as she cowered behind a bathroom door in his Pretoria apartment on Valentine’s Day — but he also admitted under cross-examination that there was no evidence disputing Pistorius’ claims that he thought she was an intruder.
The murder-case shakeup came as a haunting interview with Steenkamp was published in which the model and law-school grad opened up about her relationship with Pistorius. The stunner, just seven days before she was slain, told the South African magazine Heat how much she “respects and admires” Pistorius.
“I absolutely adore Oscar,” she told the magazine.
“We haven’t been talking to the media because I don’t want to get it tainted,” Steenkamp said. “I don’t want anything coming in the way of his career. He’s an amazing athlete.”
“You know what they do, they make things up, ‘Reeva cheats on Oscar,’ and rubbish like that. I wouldn’t want lies about us jeopardizing it,” said Steenkamp, who also talked about expanding her career beyond being just a men’s-mag bikini model.
“ I want to be seen as a classic model, and not a model who uses her body in a trashy way.”
Prosecutors yesterday continued to paint Pistorius as a cold-blooded killer. “He fired four shots. The only reason you fire four shots is to kill,” said prosecutor Gerrie Nel at the bail hearing, which continues today.
Meanwhile, Pistorius’ lawyer, Barry Roux, blasted investigators and laid out the ways that Botha contradicted himself.
“The state had access to the evidence and, at the very least, had to know the evidence fell far short of premeditated murder,” Roux said.
Botha will likely still testify as a witness in the Pistorius case, but Lt. Gen. Vinesh Moonoo has taken over the investigation.
“We are not taking Mr. Botha off the case because of him not doing his job, we are taking him off the case because of the other allegations against him in 2011,” Moonoo told The Post. “He’s a very experienced and well-trained investigator.”
Prosecutors say Pistorius intentionally shot Steenkamp after a nasty fight in his upscale home.
He is due back in court today.
Additional reporting by Liela Magnus
in Pretoria, South Africa