Steenkamp’s dad: Pistorius must pay for his crime
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HIS voice breaking with emotion, the father of Reeva Steenkamp testified in a South African court yesterday that her fatal shooting by boyfriend Oscar Pistorius “devastated” his family and that he thinks of her constantly, even trying to imagine the horrific moment of her death.
“Oscar has to pay for what he did,” said Barry Steenkamp, adding that he would like to talk to the former track star in private at a later stage.
Steenkamp spoke at the sentencing hearing for Pistorius, who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend in his home in 2013 in a case that transfixed many around the world, partly because of the dramatic fall of a once-acclaimed athlete and the shocking nature of his crime.
Pistorius is currently under house arrest after initially serving one year of a five-year prison sentence for manslaughter for shooting Reeva Steenkamp. But that conviction was overturned last year by an appeals court, which convicted Pistorius of the more serious charge of murder.
Judge Thokozile Masipa, who initially acquitted Pistorius of murder, will decide the new sentence. The hearing is scheduled to run through Friday. South Africa has a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison for murder, although a judge can reduce that in some circumstances.
Barry Steenkamp gave testimony, after being called by prosecutor Gerrie Nel, about the wrenching, personal grief of a distraught father who lost a daughter in a fatal shooting. “She must have been in so much fear, pain,” Steenkamp said, his hands shaking at times. “That is what I think of all the time.”
He said the death of Reeva Steenkamp, a model who was shot multiple times through a toilet cubicle door, contributed to his heart and other health problems and that his wife June grieves just as much as he does despite what he called her “stone-faced” public demeanor.
“I hear her at night,” Barry Steenkamp said. “I hear her crying. I hear her talking to Reeva.” He said of his daughter’s death: “It devastated us.”
Sitting in the courtroom, Pistorius looked downward as Steenkamp testified. Afterward, during an adjournment, he sat hunched forward, apparently emotional.
Earlier, a pastor testified for Pistorius’ defense.
Pastor Marius Nel said he had been in contact with schools that want the double-amputee Olympian to help disadvantaged children with sports training. The pastor also said he had visited Pistorius after he was jailed for the earlier manslaughter conviction and found him to be a “broken” man.
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