Oscar Pistorius tweeted how he went into “full combat recon mode” after mistaking his washing machine for an intruder

Athlete Oscar Pistorius tweeted how he went into “full combat recon mode” after mistaking his washing machine for an intruder, less than three months before his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead in the middle of the night.

Oscar Pistorius, 26, was today preparing to spend the night in jail before appearing in court first thing tomorrow morning after being charged with the murder of 30-year-old FHM model Reeva Steenkamp.

Reeva Steenkamp, who had been dating Oscar Pistorius for two months, was shot four times in the head, chest and arm inside his mansion in Pretoria, South Africa at 4.00 a.m.

In a message posted on Twitter on November 27 last year Oscar Pistorius wrote: “Nothing like getting home to hear the washing machine on and thinking it’s an intruder to go into full combat recon mode into the pantry!”

Oscar Pistorius may have killed his girlfriend with a handgun kept next to his bed after a Valentine’s Day surprise went tragically wrong and he thought she was a burglar, sources have said.

But police say Reeva Steenkamp’s death is being treated as murder, adding that officers had been sent to previous incidents of a “domestic nature” at his address on the exclusive Silver Woods gated estate.

Brigadier Denise Beukes said neighbors were woken by “screaming and shouting” at the time of the shooting and police were “very surprised” by the intruder suggestion, telling reporters: “These allegations did not come from us.”

Oscar Pistorius is in custody and was due in court this afternoon but the hearing has now been delayed to 9.00 a.m. tomorrow to allow forensics more time to work in his home.