Steenkamps to pay back Pistorius
Print Edition
THE parents of Reeva Steenkamp will not pursue a civil claim against Oscar Pistorius for killing their daughter and will pay back around US$10,000 that the athlete gave them in monthly installments to help with living expenses, they said in a statement yesterday.
Lawyer Dup de Bruyn said he had also advised Barry and June Steenkamp to remain “neutral” with regard to Pistorius’ sentence for negligently killing Reeva by shooting her multiple times in his home. Relatives of victims sometimes testify to their suffering in sentencing hearings, but de Bruyn suggested Steenkamp’s parents would not. However, de Bruyn said the parents were “quite surprised” that Pistorius’ lawyers had raised the issue of payments when the athlete had asked the Steenkamps that they be kept confidential.
Judge Thokozile Masipa will decide Pistorius’ punishment after finding him guilty last month of culpable homicide and has wide latitude with the sentence. The judge could send the double-amputee Olympic runner to prison for as many as 15 years, or order a fine and a suspended sentence.
Pistorius was convicted of acting negligently in Steenkamp’s death on February 14, 2013 but acquitted of murder.
De Bruyn released the statement on behalf of the Steenkamps ahead of the third day of the sentencing hearing yesterday, saying they had accepted monthly payments of US$550 from Pistorius from March 2013 — weeks after their daughter’s shooting death — until last month.
“After Miss Steenkamp (the deceased) was killed ... the parents were in financial difficulties,” the parents’ statement issued by their lawyer said.
“We were contacted soon afterward by Mr Pistorius’ lawyers with an offer that Mr. Pistorius would contribute an amount ... toward the parents’ rental and living expenses.”
Revelations over payments to the Steenkamps by Pistorius were made in court on Tuesday, when the chief prosecutor said the Steenkamps had refused a separate settlement offer of US$34,000 from Pistorius and considered it “blood money.”
“When the parents were made aware of this offer, they considered it carefully but decided, for various reasons, that they did not want any payment from Mr Pistorius,” the Steenkamp lawyer statement said. “This is also why we were instructed to advise that no civil claim would be instituted.”
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