The sharpest tragedy in the Pistorius scandal is the death of a young, intelligent woman - Reeva Steenkamp. Yet, the whole episode also threatens to strike a dagger into last year's Olympic legacy. For all that Pistorius did to prove the irrelevance of disability; he is now the blade runner that malfunctioned.
They say time flies, but it is almost unthinkable that it was six months ago that the Olympic Games opened so spectacularly. The memories will live on for years to come, a summer which saw the best of what the UK had to offer, magnificent sport, an organisational triumph and of course an abiding memory of the team in purple and red: the Games Makers.
With the Paralympics not all that far in the rear view mirror, Duncan Smith's outlook sounds almost consistent with the theme tune of that superb tournament: that people with disabilities are Harder Than You Think, and therefore don't need so many of your tax-funded handouts. It's a seductively simple premise, but it looks to be at variance with the facts.