Oscar Pistorious 'wailed like kid' when confronted by Reeva Steenkamp's parents

31 March 2023 , 16:21

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Pistorius, now aged 36, lost his appeal and correctional services confirmed his parole has been denied (Image: AP)

Reeva Steenkamp's parents say they confronted Oscar Pistorious in prison and he 'wailed like a child'.

Her father Barry Steenkamp said Pistorius cried when he read out a heart-breaking letter from Reeva's mother during their tense jail showdown.

Former Paralympian Pistorious has so far served half of his 13-year sentence for murdering his then-girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentines Day in 2013 and was hoping to be freed from prison today.

However Pistorius, now aged 36, lost his appeal and correctional services confirmed his parole has been denied.

Reeva's parents initially said they initially forgave the athlete, but have since become opposed to his release as Pistorious continues to admit he deliberately shot their daughter.

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Barry said: "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.

Parents of the late Reeva Steenkamp, June, left, and Barry Steenkamp, right (AP)

"After all these years we are still waiting for him to admit he did it in anger. That is all we wanted.

"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."

Last year Pistorius agreed to meet the Steenkamps in prison, as part of South Africa's victim-offender dialogue programme.

outh African paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius and his girlfriend model Reeva Steenkamp in 2012 (FRENNIE SHIVAMBU/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

He was flown from Pretoria to a detention centre close to their Port Elizabeth home where he met with Mr Steenkamp.

Reeva's mother June, 76, did not to attend, but Instead wrote a letter which she gave to her husband to be read to Pistorius.

Barry, 80, said Pistorious cried as he read his wife's letter, which said: "Reeva was a gift from God for me and for Barry.

'Oscar, you've taken her away from us. But you have also taken our grandchild and she will never have her wedding.

Oscar Pistorius gestures at Pretoria High Court during the sentencing hearing set to send him back to jail (AFP via Getty Images)

'She will never have a wedding dress. She will never be able to use her law degree. She got 13 distinctions for her law degree.

'My wife said she'd stop seeing fella at work but I keep catching them at it'

'She was a clever woman, and she wasn't just a pretty face. And you have taken everything away from her that she could have had and would have had by now."

Before the latest the hearing, mother June said Pistorius was "not remorseful or rehabilitated."

They believe he is lying about their daughter’s killing and opposed the former Olympic runner’s application for parole.

South Africa's Oscar Pistorius runs in one of the men's 400-meter semifinal races (Lee Jin-man/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

Pistorius shot Reeva, his girlfriend of two months, four times, through a locked bathroom door with the 9mm pistol he kept under his bed.

The prosecution said she had gone there to escape him following the argument while Pistorius insisted he didn't hear her get out of bed and mistook her for a burglar.

It was later revealed that the once well-loved olympic star had been a gun fanatic who once fired a gun in a restaurant and had 10 weapons, including an AK-47.

The board considered his conduct and disciplinary record in prison, his participation in educational or other training courses during the last decade of incarceration, and his mental and physical state to assess whether Pistorius, now 36, would still pose a threat to public safety.

Oscar Pistorius hands his mobile phone to his brother Carl as he leaves the High Court in Pretoria (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Steenkamp's mother read a statement at the parole board, in a room separate from the killer, to voice her and her husbands opposition to Pistorius being granted early parole.

“Unless he comes clean, they don’t feel that he is rehabilitated,” Reeva's lawyer Tania Koen told reporters outside the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre prison in Pretoria, ahead of the hearing, where Pistorius has been incarcerated since 2016.

Abigail O'Leary