Reeva Steenkamp’s uncle demands jail for murderer Oscar Pistorius after snivelling Paralympian begged to be set free
The murdered model's family say they do not want him to suffer but he should serve his time
PUNISHING Oscar Pistorius with anything but jail time would be “another slap in the face” for the family of Reeva Steenkamp, the murdered model’s uncle told The Sun Online.
The young woman's devastated family has spoken out at their concern the Olympic athlete will not be properly punished the day before the double amputee is to be sentenced over the fatal shooting.
Lawyers for the shamed athlete have called for Pistorius to keep his freedom and use his skills to serve society.
But this "would not be acceptable" to Reeva Steenkamp’s grief-stricken family, her uncle Mike Steenkamp said.
Speaking firmly, Mr Steenkamp said: "Allowing Oscar Pistorius to stay free would not be what the family of Reeva want – no, no no – not at all. We would not want him to suffer behind bars for the rest of his life, but he has to serve his time for what he has done.
"If he didn’t lose his freedom, it would just seem like another slap in the face for Reeva’s family. We aren’t vengeful, we just want justice to be done for her and for us."
Buildings Project Manager Mike described his discomfort at watching a TV interview with the disgraced paralympian, in which he refused to accept the decision of South Africa’s highest court that he was guilty of murdering Reeva, who was 29. He also told his interviewer that his dead lover would not want him back behind bars.
He said: "The timing of the interview was not good. I think we would all have preferred to have heard from Oscar at the sentencing hearing, rather than him telling everyone that Reeva would not have wanted him to go to jail.
"He was taking his chances by saying that and what Reeva would not have wanted was to have her life ended at his hands. That’s the only thing he could have said about her for certain."
The dead model’s parents, Barry and June, will be in Pretoria's High Court on Wednesday to hear Judge Thokozile Masipa hand down the punishment to the sprinter known as The Blade Runner.
The judge’s original conviction for manslaughter was upgraded to murder last year, following an appeal by prosecutors.
The 29-year-old athlete is facing more than a decade behind bars for the 2013 murder of his law graduate girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp after his initial conviction was upgraded to second-degree murder.
But legal experts have said it is unlikely that the blade runner, who was the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, will receive the full force of the law despite prosecutors pushing for a 15-year prison sentence.
Pistorius has already served one year of a five-year jail term in for his previous conviction of culpable homicide, which was overturned by the Court of Appeal at the end of 2015.
Pistorius stands accused of shooting Steenkamp to death in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013, but has since maintained that he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.
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Steenkamp died at her boyfriend’s Pretoria home after being shot in the head, elbow and hip with three military-grade Black Talon bullets.
The Steenkamp family requested that six graphic pictures of the cover girl’s dead body be released to the media in advance of sentencing, so that "the world can see the wounds that were inflicted on Reeva and the pain she must have gone through."
Steenkamp’s father, Barry, previously said in his testimony to the court: "I want the world to see. I want the world to see the photos of the wounds inflicted on her. To know my daughter’s pain. To know what her last few seconds were like, so that this is stopped - so that others do not have to go through this ever."
Last month, the retired racehorse trainer and grieving father gave heart-wrenching testimony about how he had repeatedly self-harmed and driven needles into his own body since her daughter’s death to “try and feel the same pain that she went through” on the night she was shot dead by Pistorius three years ago.
The 73-year-old told a sentence hearing: "I think of her every day of my life, morning, noon and night, in the early hours of the morning, I think of her all the time."
Pistorius wept during the older man's emotional testimony to the hushed court and the two men briefly locked eyes as Reeva's father said he would “one day” want to speak privately to the famous athlete who had taken her life in a hail of bullets.
Asked by prosecutor Gerrie Nel what he wanted to see happen to Pistorius, Mr Steenkamp demanded jail.
He said: "Not the maximum sentence but Oscar has to pay for what he did."
Although the state has called for Pistorius to be sentenced for South Africa’s minimum 15 years prescribed sentence for murder, it is unlikely that Judge Masipa will meet this demand.
She originally accepted Pistorius' version that he shot dead his lover of three months after mistaking her for an intruder, hiding behind his locked toilet door. She discounted evidence by the athlete's neighbours who claimed they heard a long, violent argument between the pair which ended in gun shots.
She will also take into consideration Pistorius' disability as a double amputee, the fact that he is a first time offender and completed a string of rehabilitation courses, including anger management, during a year behind bars for manslaughter.
Pistorius served just under a year in jail before being released in October last year, to serve rest of his sentence under house arrest at his uncle's mansion.
Pistorius, whose legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old, made history by becoming the first Paralympian to compete against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 London Olympics.