CONTRARY to what Peet van Zyl testified on Tuesday, Reeva Steenkamp was not the first girlfriend Oscar Pistorius invited to join him on an overseas trip.
After Van Zyl, Pistorius’s agent and manager, testified that Steenkamp would have been the first girlfriend that the blade-running Paralympian wanted to take overseas, specifically to international events in Rio and England, state prosecutor advocate Gerrie Nel yesterday morning read to Van Zyl an e-mail sent by Pistorius to his former girlfriend Samantha Taylor.
In the e-mail Pistorius refers to his invite for her to travel with him to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Pistorius also sent his agent a copy of Taylor’s passport with a note to keep it on file, as “we are sorting our ***t out”.
Van Zyl said he could not remember the e-mail and could not remember that Pistorius ever took Taylor with him overseas.
Nel then referred to an e-mail in which Pistorius informed Taylor he had asked “Peet” to do everything in his power to get her a plane ticket.
Van Zyl again said he could not remember this.
Nel said Van Zyl wanted to create the impression that Pistorius had special feelings for Steenkamp and that his relationship with her was different to his previous relationships, when he was in fact just as serious about his relationship with Taylor.
Van Zyl admitted Pistorius was equally loving to his girlfriends Steenkamp, Taylor and another ex, Jenna Edkins.
He had earlier testified he could see Pistorius and Steenkamp had a loving relationship, “because they gave each other pet names”.
Nel then pointed out Pistorius also had a pet name for Taylor, calling her his “little butterfly”.
He also wrote to her to say he was sorry for not looking after her heart after she had entrusted it to him.
