Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius was born on 22 November 1986 to Henke & Sheila Pistorius.  He has an older brother, Carl and a younger sister, Aimée.  He was born with fibular hemimelia in both legs which resulted in both of them being amputated below the knees when he was 11 months old.

Despite having this “disability”, Oscar competed in various sports.  He suffered a rugby injury and whilst receiving rehab at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria he was introduced to running.  From thereon he went from strength to strength and eventually competed in both disabled and able-bodied events.  He has become affectionately known as the “Blade Runner” and “the fastest man on no legs”.

His life seemed perfect until the early hours of Thursday, 14 February 2013 when in a moment of human error he shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

This is when the circus came to town.

Since that fatal day, journalists, broadcasters and media houses from across the world have flocked to South Africa to follow this story.  You cannot open a magazine, read a newspaper, watch TV or listen to the radio without some news about Oscar.  It was only when the late President Nelson Mandela was so ill that the focus moved away from Oscar, but not for long.

So why have I decided not to follow the story that is gripping millions of people around the world?

I feel that despite Oscar being a public figure, there is still an element of privacy which we all need to respect.  Let us not forget that Oscar is someone’s son, brother, grandson, nephew and cousin.  How would you feel if a member of your family was in this position and you couldn’t move sideways without being harassed by the press and public?

Reeva’s family has been trying to deal with the death of their daughter for over a year now and combined with the publicity of this case it is clearly making life more difficult for them.

It is true that the public and media have both played huge roles in Oscar’s success, but let’s not forget that there should be a line drawn between public and private content.  It appears that we have still not learnt from the much publicised “falling from grace” scandals involving Hansie Cronje and Joost Van Der Westhuizen.

Even though they are trying to curb the circus by having limited coverage of the trial, some people will still convert the information into their own truths and spin it to everyone that way.  The public should be mindful of what they hear and read about the trial.

At the end of the day only Oscar and Reeva know the real truth.  Who knows whether Oscar’s version is indeed the correct one or not?

Oscar’s future will ultimately be decided by a judge and even after she has handed down her verdict the public and families are still likely to be divided.