SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE have found a bloodied cricket bat at the home of track star Oscar Pistorius, who has been charged with murdering his model girlfriend, a newspaper reported today.

The Olympic and Paralympic athlete was charged on Friday with the Valentine’s Day murder of 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp, who was shot dead at his luxury Pretoria home.

Denies

Pistorius’s family denies he intentionally killed Steenkamp, with his father telling a newspaper he had “zero doubt” his son had mistaken her for an intruder and his 89-year old grandmother telling AFP the killing was accidental.

The family has said the 26-year-old, who is being held until a bail hearing on Tuesday, is “numb with shock as well as grief” over Steenkamp’s death.

South Africa’s independent City Press newspaper quoted police sources close to the investigation saying that the cricket bat had been found and that Steenkamp’s skull had been “crushed”.

Police are investigating whether the bat was used to assault Steenkamp, who was shot four times in the early hours of Thursday, or if she may have used it to defend herself, the newspaper said.

Authorities have rejected suggestions that Pistorius mistook Steenkamp for an intruder and on Sunday police spokesman Neville Malila refused to comment on the reports of the cricket bat.

I don’t know where they got it from, but they didn’t get it from any official source in the police. We want to give the investigators an opportunity to investigate and we will make an official statement after the bail application.

Reports

Other reports suggested there had been a fight between the two lovers that had spilled over from Wednesday night, when neighbours called security guards complaining about a “commotion” inside the Pistorius home.

Pistorius was a national icon who inspired people around the world when he became the first double amputee to compete against able-bodied athletes in the Olympic Games last year.

He bail hearing on Tuesday will come the same day a funeral will be held for his slain girlfriend. He faces a life sentence if convicted of premeditated murder.

Echoing the family’s line, Pistorius’s 89-year-old grandmother also indicated the shooting had been accidental.

“I know it was a mistake anybody can make” Gertie Pistorius told AFP. “I have got my trust in my (grandson) and I have got my trust in the case, and I am sure things will go the right way” she said in a telephone interview from a retirement home in Pretoria.

Police have dismissed the intruder theory, noting that there had been several previous domestic incidents at Pistorius’s home.

- © AFP, 2013

Read: Oscar Pistorius case: ‘No hatred in our hearts’ says Reeva Steenkamp’s father>