Oscar Pistorius 'made secret nine-minute phone call to an ex girlfriend shortly before killing Reeva Steenkamp'

Oscar Pistorius made a secret phone call to one of his ex-girlfriends shortly before he shot Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day last year.

The convicted killer spoke to Jenna Edkins, 25, for nine minutes on the evening of the killing, a new book reveals.

Pistorius and Edkins were in an on-off relationship for five years, and he is believed to have still been seeing her and another woman when he met Miss Steenkamp.

The Paralympian has been convicted of culpable homicide, escaping the more serious charge of murder for shooting his 29-year-old girlfriend on Valentines’ Day 2013.

But at sentencing next month, he could simply be fined - avoiding a 15-year jail term – after Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled there was a lack of evidence to suggest he planned the killing.

During the course of the trial, Pistorius has been exposed as a paranoid love cheat who had multiple affairs behind Reeva Steenkamp's back during their relationship.

It has been revealed that the 27-year-old double amputee started dating Miss Steenkamp when he was still seeing Miss Edkins, a banker from Johannesburg, and another woman.

Mobile phone data uncovered by South African journalists Barry Bateman and Mandy Wiener during the research for their forthcoming book Behind The Door, show that Pistorius was on the phone to Miss Edkins on the eve of the killing.

Miss Edkins, who was stored in Pistorius’ phone book as ‘Babyshoes’, is one of the few former lovers to speak out in support of the Paralympian after the killing.

Police did not discover the nine-minute phone call, and Miss Edkins never gave a statement to the authorities, The Mirror reports.

Miss Edkins has only posted five times since setting up her Twitter account in 2009, four of those are in support of Pistorius, all written on February 15th last year, the day after he shot Reeva Steenkamp.

‘People must stop jumping on the bandwagon with such hurtful allegations. Os is the loving , amazing inspirational person we know him to be,’ she writes in the first post.

‘You have all my familys love and support #loveandsupportoscar (sic)’

‘All I am saying is let him speak, let his side be heard without jumping to conclusions. Love and thoughts to Reeva’s family.’

The final post firmly defends Pistorius, reading: ‘I would just like to say , I have dated Oscar on off for 5 YEARS, NOT ONCE has he EVER lifted a finger to me , made me fear for my life..’