‘He did it IN ANGER’
REEVA STEENKAMP’S PARENTS REVEAL THE BRUTAL TRUTH
Already enduring a decade without their daughter, Reeva, Barry and June Steenkamp have been dealt another cruel blow at the hands of the very man who took her life, Oscar Pistorius.
Although they initally forgave the convicted killer for shooting Reeva, the Steenkamps now say they want Pistorius behind bars for the rest of his life.
It comes after Pistorius, 36, refused to admit to deliberately shooting Reeva.
“After all these years we are still waiting for him to admit he did it in anger. That is all we wanted,” Barry told Mail Online on the eve of the 10th anniversary of their daughter’s death.
South African athlete Pistorius is currently serving a 13-year sentence for the infamous murder of Reeva on February 14, 2013. He claimed he thought a burglar was hiding in his ensuite when he fired four times through the bathroom door, killing his 29-year-old model girlfriend.
He was found guilty of her murder and began serving his sentence in 2014.
Barry, 80, said all he wanted was the truth.
“I told Oscar directly that he had shot my daughter deliberately and he denied it. He stuck to his story that he thought it was an intruder,” Barry said.
“If he told me the truth, he would have been a free man by now and I would have let the law take its course over his parole … But I was wasting my time. He is a murderer. He should remain in jail.” As part of South Africa’s victimoffender dialogue program, Pistorius agreed to meet with the Steenkamps in prison in June last year.
Mum June, 76, chose not to attend. Instead, she penned a heartbreaking letter.
“Reeva was a gift from God for me and for Barry,” she wrote.
“Oscar, you’ve taken her away from us … you have taken everything away from her that she could have had and would have had.”
June said she didn’t attend the meeting because she was worried about how she may behave when in a room with her daughter’s killer.
“I couldn’t see myself going without hurting him. I didn’t want to go to jail for attacking him,” she admitted.
“I am angry with him.
It is a horrible thing to say, but I can’t stand him.
“I don’t think that he got enough time and if somebody takes a life they must pay with their life in jail,” June said.