PRETORIA: A sobbing Oscar Pistorius was acquitted on Thursday of murdering his girlfriend, but the South African celebrity athlete dubbed the “Blade Runner” still faces judgement on a lesser culpable homicide charge.

The trial, watched by a worldwide live television audience, was adjourned until Friday when the 27-year-old Paralympian will hear the verdict on what is equivalent to manslaughter.

The not guilty verdict on the most serious charge left Pistorius — who says he thought he was shooting at an intruder when he killed fashion model Reeva Steenkamp — in tears.

“The state clearly has not proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of premeditated murder,” Judge Thokozile Masipa told the High Court in Pretoria.

“Viewed in its totality the evidence failed to establish that the accused had the requisite intention to kill the deceased let alone with premeditation,” she said.

The double amputee could still face anything from a suspended sentence to a lengthy prison stretch if found guilty of culpable homicide. Or he could be acquitted altogether.

Masipa’s introductory comments on the lesser count appeared to lean towards a guilty ruling.

“I am of the view that the accused acted too hastily and used excessive force. In the circumstances, it is clear that his conduct was negligent,” she said before adjourning the trial.

When he heard the judge clear him of murder, the double-amputee Paralympian sprinter who won global fame when he competed against able-bodied athletes in the London Olympics, sat bowed in the dock, burying his head in his hands.

His sister Aimee rushed from the first row of the public gallery to hug her older brother, who was wiping tears from his eyes with a handkerchief.

After the court adjourned, Pistorius sat at the side of the courtroom, with Aimee on his lap, cradling his head on her chest.

JUDGE Thokozile Masipa delivers the verdict.—AP

The victim’s parents, Barry and June Steenkamp, left the courtroom with stony faces.

Legal experts voiced shock after Pistorius was found not guilty of murder, and predicted the case, which has gripped South Africans for a year, would not rest with the verdict.

Both defence and prosecution agree that Pistorius killed Steenkamp, a law graduate and fashion model, when he fired four shots through a locked toilet door in his upmarket Pretoria home.

But the sprinter says he thought he was aiming at an intruder while Steenkamp was safely in bed.

The prosecution says he killed her in a fit of rage after an argument.

Judge Masipa moved quickly through her judgement, rejecting state evidence that pointed to an argument between the couple.

“Neither the evidence of the loving relationship or a relationship turned sour can assist this court to determine whether the accused had the requisite intention to kill the deceased,” she said.

The judge also reviewed evidence by neighbours who testified to hearing shots and screams, saying many “had their facts wrong”.

She said the huge media coverage of the case could have affected some witnesses.

“I am of the view that they failed to separate what they knew personally or what they heard from other people or what they gathered from the media,” she said.

But Masipa also said Pistorius himself was “evasive” on the stand, and that his evidence showed “a number of defences, or apparent defences”.

“The accused was a very poor witness,” she said.

“I’m shocked,” Martin Hood, a Johannesburg-based criminal lawyer, said of Masipa’s initial rulings.

“I think she’s going to get quite a lot of criticism from the judiciary and the legal system. The consensus among the legal community was that he is guilty of murder.”

Another Johannesburg lawyer David Dadic said he and other legal professionals “are quite stunned by the decision... that the death behind the door, irrespective of who the victim was, was not foreseeable.”

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2014