Oscar Pistorius Trial Set to Begin Again on Monday After Six-week Psychiatric Assessment

Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock during his trial at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
The Blade Runner, 27, has been a day patient at Weskoppies mental health hospital to see if the state of his mind played a role in the shooting dead of Reeva Steenkamp

The trial of Oscar Pistorius is set to resume again on Monday as the athlete comes to the end of a 30-day psychiatric assessment.
  Pistorius is currently a day patient at Weskoppies mental health hospital where he is being observed to see if he has Generalised Anxiety Disorder.

The findings will then be used as evidence for whether or not the disorder played any role in the shooting of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14, 2013.
  He has three days left of monitoring by four psychiatrists which has been ongoing for the last six weeks .

The tests have been evaluating whether or not he was criminally responsible on the night he shot Reeva dead.

The decision by Judge Thokozile Masipa followed a request for a psychiatric evaluation by chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel.

The prosecutor said he had no option but to ask for it after an expert witness for the defense  said Pistorius had GAD.
                           

This picture taken on November 4, 2012 during the Feather Awards held at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg shows model Reeva Steenkamp, girlfriend of South Africa's Olympic sprint star Oscar Pistorius

There are three possible outcomes from the evaluation:

1 .  Pistorius was mentally incapacitated at the time of the shooting. This could lead the trial to collapse and would potentially see him being committed to a mental institution until he is no longer ruled to be dangerous.
2 .  He could be found to have diminished responsiblity. The trial would continue but it would have to be taken into consideration if he was found guilty.

3 .   The experts could disagree with the defence psychiatrist.

Pistorius says he killed Steenkamp by mistake, thinking there was an intruder in his home. The prosecution says the Olympic runner killed her after an argument.

The hospital was established in 1892 and was originally called the Pretoria Lunatic Asylum (Krankzinnigengesticht te Pretoria).

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health: "The hospital's medical director followed an enlightened approach to caring for the mentally ill, in line with the policies of psychiatric hospitals in contemporary Europe.

"However, his ideals of no restraint and minimal confinement of patients could not be maintained during the war years owing to insufficient accommodation and a lack of suitably trained attendants.

"It is concluded that the humane care of the institutionalised psychiatric patient was (and is) not guaranteed by enlightened policies, but depends on sufficient resources to put such policies into practice."