Reeva Steenkamp's death no accident, writes grieving mother in book

[SoleSurvivor]

Reeva Steenkamp's death no accident, writes grieving mother in book

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 11 November, 2014, 4:54am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 11 November, 2014, 4:54am

Agence France-Presse in Johannesburg

Copies of Reeva: A Mother's Story on sale. Photo: AFP

Reeva Steenkamp's mother does not believe Oscar Pistorius accidentally killed her daughter and feels "let down" by South Africa's justice system, according to a memoir published yesterday.

In Reeva, a Mother's Story June Steenkamp says she believes Pistorius shot her 29-year-old daughter dead after a fight and that the couple's relationship had been coming to an end.

"Oscar's story I don't believe," she wrote in the book, released weeks after the athlete was found not guilty of murder and sentenced to five years on a lesser manslaughter charge. Pistorius claimed he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder, firing four shots through a locked bathroom door.

"Not one of his actions suggests he felt protective towards her," wrote Steenkamp, setting out what she believes happened on Valentine's Day 2013.

"They had a fight, a horrible argument, and she fled to the bathroom with her mobile and locked the door … I think he may have shot once and then he had to go on and kill her because she would have been able to tell the world what really happened, what he is really like.

"There is no doubt in our minds: she had decided to leave Oscar that night," she wrote. "It was Reeva's bad luck that she met him, because sooner or later he would have killed someone."

Steenkamp also described the desperate pain of not being there to help her daughter in her time of need, of medication to numb the anguish and of her husband Barry's recent stroke.

Steenkamp added that while she forgives Pistorius, she would like to meet him to ask questions.

"I have forgiven him. I have to - that's my religion. But I can't forget what he has done. I hate what he has done to my child."

Meanwhile, prosecutors said their request to appeal against Pistorius' manslaughter conviction and sentence for killing Reeva Steenkamp would be heard on December 9.

The National Prosecuting Authority had described the double amputee's sentence as "shockingly light". Under South African law Pistorius, 27, could serve just 10 months in jail.