Pistorius kneels in tearful apology to victim’s father

In a desperate bid for parole, Oscar Pistorius has told Barry Steenkamp how sorry he is for taking his daughter’s life in their first face-to-face meeting since her death in 2013.

Former South African athlete Oscar Pistorius (right) with Reeva Steenkamp, whom he was jailed for murdering in 2016. Picture: AFP

Oscar Pistorius dropped to his knees in front of the father of his murder victim and wept through an apology during their first face-to-face meeting since the killing in 2013.

Barry Steenkamp, 79, said the encounter was difficult and traumatic. Pistorius, 35, continued to claim that he had shot Reeva Steenkamp, his girlfriend, four times through a locked bathroom door by accident.

“He gave me his truth, but I didn’t get my truth,” Mr Steenkamp said in My Name Is Reeva, a new documentary based on her murder.

“He came in, he went on his knees and he took my hand and shook it. He thanked me and told me how sorry he was and how he can’t stop thinking about that moment. I didn’t say I forgive you, I just said ‘Thank you’,” Mr Steenkamp said.

Barry (left) and June Steenkamp, father and mother of murdered South African model Reeva Steenkamp. Picture: AFP

His wife, June, declined to be part of the “victim-offender dialogue”. It is part of the parole process, which has stalled in Pistorius’s case. Instead she told the program she had written to Pistorius saying: “You have stolen her life.” Asked if she thought the former athlete was remorseful, she said: “If he’s destroyed by what he’s done now, that would be a good thing.”

Tanie Koen, the couple’s lawyer, who was at the meeting in June, described the mood as “an overwhelming sense of grief and sadness”. She added: “I don’t believe Oscar’s version.”

Since Pistorius’s trial in 2014, appeals have led to disagreement about whether he has served more than half his sentence of 13 years, five months.

An initial conviction of manslaughter and a six-year sentence were changed by the Supreme Court of Appeal to a murder conviction and longer sentence. Lawyers for Pistorius and the case management committee at Atteridgeville prison in Pretoria do not agree on when the sentence began.

According to appraisals by his supervisors, published by the News24 website, Pistorius has completed rehabilitation programs and has a low risk of reoffending. He works as a cleaner in the special care unit, is a weightlifting coach and is a member of a book club and a gardening project.

– The Times