Oscar Pistorius in tears during his ongoing trial for murder in Pretoria ©AFP/Getty Images

Personally, I am finding it hard to reconcile the reports of rages and the frequent discharging of firearms with the recollection of the man who spoke evenly and patiently to gathered reporters for almost half an hour after one of his races at the London 2012 Paralympics as he sought to clarify - and modify - the angry comments he had made about the "unfair" length of the prostheses worn by Brazilian athlete Alan Fonteles Oliveira after the latter had unexpectedly beaten him to the T44 200 metres title.

This is not to question for a moment the evidence being adduced at the proceedings in Pretoria. It is simply to reflect upon the inevitable additional impact involved when someone so broadly familiar is involved in such grave proceedings.

The sad fact is that the Pistorius trial is only the latest in a long line of similar cases involving top class sportsmen and charges of murder or attempted murder.

In terms of worldwide interest, the closest parallel to the Pistorius case is the one involving O J Simpson, the feted American football player who was involved in what was widely called "The Trial of the Century" in 1994 and 1995 when he was accused of the double-murder of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

At the time, Simpson was a celebrity - Heisman Trophy winner, NFL Hall of Famer, the only running back to run for 2,000 yards in a 14-game season, Monday Night Football and NFL on NBC commentator and an actor whose work had included roles in The Naked Gun series.

O J Simpson (centre) at his trial for the murder of his estranged wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson is pictured with two members of his defence counsel - Johnnie Cochran (right) and Robert Blasier ©AFP/Getty Images

On June 13, 1994, Brown and Goldman were found dead outside Brown's condominium. Simpson was charged with their murders. On June 17, after failing to turn himself in, he became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a white SUV. Live television footage of the pursuit, filmed from a helicopter, interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA finals. The trial itself culminated on October 3, 1995 with a hugely controversial jury verdict of not guilty for the two murders. The verdict was seen live on TV by more than half of the US population, making it one of the most watched events in American television history.

On February 5, 1997, in a civil action brought by Goldman's father, a jury in Santa Monica, California unanimously found Simpson liable for the wrongful death of and battery against Goldman, and battery against Brown. Simpson was ordered to pay $33,500,000 (£20,126,163/€24,361,870) in damages.

In 2007, Simpson was found guilty of robbery and kidnapping following a raid at gunpoint at the Palace Station hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Sports memorabilia, which Simpson claimed had been stolen from him, was taken. On December 8, 2008, the former football star was sentenced to 33 years in jail.

If Simpson's is the most notorious instance of a former American footballer facing murder charges, the sport has produced numerous other cases of similar severity.

Rae Carruth was a wide receiver, and first round draft pick of the Carolina Panthers in 1997. But his NFL career ended prematurely. On November 16, 1999, Carruth stopped his car in front of his girlfriend Cherica Adams, who was eight months pregnant with twins. Another car pulled alongside Adams' vehicle and the passenger shot her four times. Carruth and the assailants fled the scene.

Doctors were able to save one child, but Adams and the other twin both died in hospital. Carruth posted $3 million (£1.8 million/€2.2 million) bail and then fled the state, but was later discovered hiding in the boot of a car parked outside a motel in Tennessee. In the boot alongside him was $3,900 (£2,300/€2,800) in cash, bottles to hold his urine, extra clothes, chocolate bars, and a cell phone.

Carruth was not convicted of first-degree murder, however, he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, and using an instrument to destroy an unborn child. He is currently serving an 18 to 24-year sentence.

Eric Naposki, the linebacker who played for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts in the late eighties and early nineties, was sentenced in 2012 to life in prison without the prospect of parole for a murder he had committed in 1994.

Following the introduction of new technological detection methods, the former footballer was charged with killing Bill McLaughlin - by shooting the 55-year-old six times from close range - so that McLaughlin's girlfriend, Nanette Johnston, could collect her husband's life insurance. At the time, Naposki was romantically linked to Johnston, who was also convicted for the murder.

Another American football player, Robert Rozier, was jailed after admitting to killing seven people as a member of "The Brotherhood", a black supremacist cult founded by Yahweh ben Yahweh in the 1980s. Rozier later testified against Yahweh and earned his freedom through the witness protection scheme.

Other major US sports have also had their unfortunate share of criminal action.

In November 2005, top baseball pitcher Ugueth Urbina was arrested after he and a group of men had attacked five farm workers on his family property in Venezuela. The victims were attacked with machetes, had petrol poured on them, with their assailants then attempting to set them alight.

Ugueth Urbina, who was convicted of attempted murder, during his days as a baseball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in 2002 ©AFP/Getty Images

Urbina was convicted of attempted murder, among other charges, and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

In a case relating to Japanese baseball, Hiroshi Ogawa, a retired pitcher for the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball, was convicted of murder in the first degree.

According to the prosecution, Ogawa, 43, was heavily in debt and demanded money from the housekeeper of the chairman of an industrial waste plant. When she refused, he burgled the house, stealing 1.75 million yen (£10,200/$17,000/€12,400), and drowned the housekeeper, 67-year-old Kazuko Nishiuchi, in a nearby lake. On September 29, 2005, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Boxing is another sport with a history of violence outside the ring.

Clifford Etienne, a former high school football star in Louisiana, was paroled in 1998 after serving 10 years for attempted armed robbery.

He then became a professional boxer, nicknamed the "Black Rhino". In 2001, Etienne signed a multi-fight deal with Showtime, but his career ended soon after a 49-second first-round loss to Mike Tyson in February 2003.

Clifford Etienne (right), pictured fighting Nicolai Valuev in a 2005 WBA Intercontinental bout, was convicted the following year of attempted murder ©Bongarts/Getty Images

He was convicted again in March 2006 of attempted murder and several other charges. Etienne stole more than $1,900 (£1,100/€1,300) from a check-cashing business in August 2005, and then stole a car with two children inside before crashing it. When police responded to the scene, Etienne tried to shoot them but his gun jammed. On June 22, 2006, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

His sentence was later reduced - to 105 years.

Esteban de Jesús was a lightweight champion boxer who turned professional in 1969 and gained fame for being the first person to beat Roberto Durán as a professional. He was the World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight champion from May 8, 1976 until January 21, 1978.

After ending his boxing career with 57 wins - 32 by knock-out - and five losses, De Jesús was convicted of murdering a 17-year-old boy after a traffic dispute over Thanksgiving weekend, 1981.

While in prison, De Jesús became a star baseball player for the Puerto Rico penal system and a born-again Christian, later becoming a preacher. After contracting HIV, he was pardoned by the then governor and released from prison one month before dying at his home.

Rubin Carter, a professional middleweight boxer and member of the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, was arrested in 1966 for multiple homicides. He was convicted in 1967 after matching the description of a witness and sentenced to three life terms in prison. In 1985 his conviction was overturned and he was released from prison after a judge ruled that he had not received a fair trial. His life inspired the Bob Dylan song "The Hurricane" and a film starring Denzel Washington.

Carlos Monzón became one of Argentina's most popular sportsmen during a career in which he held the undisputed world middleweight title for seven years. He successfully defended his title 14 times and is widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time.

But the boxer had a history of domestic violence, and of attacking papazzi who attempted to follow him. In 1988 he was charged with killing his wife and mother of his child, the Uruguayan model Alicia Muñiz, while on holiday in the Mar del Plata resort.

Carlos Monzón after another successful defence of his world middleweight boxing title in 1973 ©Hulton Archive/Getty Images

It was alleged that he beat Muñiz during an argument, followed her to the balcony of their second floor apartment and strangled her there before throwing her off it and then jumping himself, injuring his shoulder in the process.

He was sentenced to 11 years in jail. On January 8, 1995 Monzón died instantly when his car crashed and rolled over as he was returning to jail in Santa Fe Province after an allowed weekend visit to his family and children.

Thousands attended his funeral, singing "Dale campeón" ("Go Champ") during the service.

Gavin Grant, a 26-year-old footballer who played for Millwall, Wycombe Wanderers and Bradford City, was jailed in 2010 for the murder in 2004 of 21-year-old Leon Labastide, who was shot dead on Harlesden's Stonebridge Park Estate.

An Old Bailey court heard that the killing was part of a series of "tit-for-tat" shootings. Grant was one of three men convicted for the killing and given life sentences with minimum terms of 25 years.

In 2007 Grant, from Kenton, north London, had been cleared of killing Jahmall Moore, 24, who was shot two years earlier.

But he was charged with Mr Labastide's murder when new witnesses came forward.

Speaking for Grant, Nigel Rumfitt QC said: "Whatever he did in the past, he had turned his life around by the time it [the murder case] was resurrected."

Speaking after Grant's conviction, Detective Inspector Steve Horsley said: "Gavin Grant thought he had got away with murder. He carried on his footballing career while, all along, he had blood on his hands."

In France, there was huge media coverage of the trial of the former captain of the national rugby union team, Marc Cécillon, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail for the murder of his wife in 2004.

Cécillon admitted shooting his wife, Chantal, with a revolver at a party in 2004 but had denied murder. Cécillon, who won 46 caps for France between 1988 and 1995, said he was depressed and drunk at the time and did not intend to kill her.

Marc Cécillon scores for France in their Five Nations rugby match against Ireland at Lansdowne Road in 1995 ©AFP/Getty Images

But the court in Isère found him guilty of murder, rather than the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, and his 20-year sentence was five years longer than that requested by the prosecution.

The court heard that Cécillon shot his wife five times at point-blank range during a garden party in the town of Saint-Savin on August 7, 2004.

He was reported to have arrived at the party drunk and slapped the hostess for no apparent reason before being asked to leave.

Mrs Cécillon refused to leave with him. He went home and returned shortly afterwards, when he pulled out a Magnum handgun and shot her in the presence of about 60 witnesses.

"I wanted my wife to come back with me. I wanted the two of us to leave together," he said in court.

"Why did I shoot? It is a question I shall ask myself all my life. I didn't plan anything. I wish I could understand."

A dozen people struggled to overpower the 1.92m-tall (6ft 4in) sportsman before police arrived.

Cécillon's lawyers argued that the incident happened while the former captain - described as "the calm man of rugby" - was in the grip of depression sparked by his retirement as a top sportsman.

Marital problems were also at the centre of two murder cases involving international cricketers.

In 1955, Leslie Hylton, who had been a fast bowler for the West Indies during the 1930s, was hanged in Jamaica after being found guilty of murdering his wife.

Hylton, who took 13 wickets in his first Test series against England in 1934-1935, retired from first class cricket in 1939 and began working as a foreman in the civil service.

In 1942 he married Lurline Rose, the daughter of the Inspector of Police in Jamaica. The couple had a child five years later, but their domestic life was to end in tragedy in 1954 after Hylton received an anonymous letter alleging that his wife had been having an affair while making frequent trips to New York City for her dressmaking business.

Hylton insisted his wife returned home, which she did, denying any infidelity. But Hylton soon suspected his wife was writing regularly to her lover and when, during a row, the affair was admitted, he shot his wife dead.

In court, Hylton claimed he had tried to shoot himself and missed, in the process shooting his wife. However, the claim was dismissed as there were seven bullets in her body.

Another former West Indian cricketer, Warrington Phillip, who was widely remembered for taking the wicket of Brian Lara during a Red Stripe Match, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 for slashing the throat of his wife of four years and leaving her dead in the back of a car.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.