This heartbreaking image of Reeva Steenkamp’s body after she was
murdered by Oscar Pistorius has been released because her father wants
the world to see it.
graphic photographs to be released after prosecutors lodged a request
for images of Reeva’s body to be released to the public at the request
of Barry Steenkamp.
Mr Steenkamp said he wanted the world to see
the horrendous injuries she suffered at the hands of Pistorius, in the
hope of preventing similar murders in future.
The former model
and TV presenter was shot by the disgraced sprinter at his home in
Pretoria, South Africa, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013.
But he was convicted of manslaughter and the verdict was later upgraded to murder.
The grieving father also told the court in Pretoria that “the time
will come” when he wants to talk to Pistorius in private – and that the
runner “has to pay for what he did”.
her daughter’s killer but Mr Steenkamp stressed that it does not mean
Pistorius should be freed from prison.
The 73-year-old said:
“I don’t want to say that he must go to the maximum or whatever it is, but he has to pay for it.”
“June has forgiven,” he continued. “She feels it right in her heart to forgive Oscar.
“But then you must understand by forgiving like that, it still does not
exonerate you from the crime that you committed.””She’s most probably a
bit stronger but she grieves.
“I hear her at night, I hear her cry, I hear her talking to Reeva, and of course she feels just as much as I do.”
Trembling while speaking, he told the court:
“Every day of my life – morning, noon, night – I think of her all the time.
Mr Steenkamp said people had told him it would get better after a few
years following his daughter’s death, but that “every day of [his] life
is the same”.
“Finding out what happened, it devastated us. I ended up having a stroke.”I don’t wish that on anybody in the whole world.”
Recalling
the moment he was told of his daughter’s death over the phone by his
wife June, he said:
“At first I thought most probably one of our animals
had got killed.”And she said ‘come home immediately, come home’.”I
dropped everything and on my way home I tried to fathom what she
tried to tell me then I realised that she mentioned Reeva,
“That’s when I started to panic, and then driving
more, more Reeva’s been killed – it hit me then. It’s like it happened
yesterday.”
“From that day, it’s effected June, myself and my
family so much and it’s been difficult to explain but our lives have
just changed completely.”
In a heart-wrenching appearance he also explained how his landlady
discovered he was “virtually bankrupt” and ordered the Steenkamp family
to leave their home just two weeks after Reeva’s death.
It
comes after Pistorius dramatically removed his prosthetic legs and
demonstrated the scale of his disability to the courtroom in a plea for
mercy today.
