The prosecution saw its evidence repeatedly picked apart.
Serious doubt was cast on the work of Hilton Botha, the detective who initially investigated the case.
He bumbled through testimony, admitted he may have contaminated the crime scene and appeared to undermine the police’s own witnesses.
Botha himself was forced to admit that Pistorius’s claims were “consistent” with the crime scene and that his police work was not adequate.
“I’m sure it could have been handled better,” he told the court.
The magistrate agreed, saying the detective blundered.
“Botha indeed made several errors and concessions during cross-examination.”
In a dramatic twist South African police unceremoniously turfed Botha off the case after it emerged he faces seven attempted murder charges for having opened fire on a minibus in 2011.
The prosecution will now have a few short months to regroup and try and put the case back on track.
Embarrassed by proceedings that sometimes seemed to put the South African authorities in the dock, the country’s most senior detective Lieutenant General Vineshkumar Moonoo will now lead the case.
But the prosecution will be buoyed by apparent gaps in Pistorius’s account of events.
“He fired four shots, not one. He meant to kill. On his own version, he’s bound to be convicted,” said top prosecutor Gerrie Nel.
“He hasn’t said so, but he must think that conviction is likely. He must realise that a long term of imprisonment is almost guaranteed,” he told the court.
In arguing against bail, Nel said Pistorius had the money, means and motive to flee his native South Africa.
“Lots of people have escaped bail. Lots of famous people,” he said.
And just hours before the magistrate’s decision, Pistorius’s top lawyer appeared to admit the star sprinter could be convicted on charges of homicide.
“We can never ever say that he acted in self-defence,” chief defence counsel Barry Roux told the court
“He is exposed to be convicted of culpable homicide.”
That charge, which entails negligence rather than murderous intent, could carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, or in some instances release and a warning.
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