Reeva Steenkamp's father Barry tells court Pistorius has to pay for crime.

Reeva Steenkamp's father Barry tells court Pistorius has to pay for crime.


Oscar Pistorius trial update.In the ongoing appeal trial of his daughter's killer,Barry Steenkamp,the father of the father of Reeva Steenkamp has said Oscar Pistorius has to pay for his crime.Watching the father of Reeva testify was very sad.Barry looked a broken man in court,shaking and his voice trembling with emotion.He said he has been told it takes 2 to 3 years and you start feeling better after what has happened.But he said,for him everyday is the same.
He thinks about her all the time and the pain won't go away.He ended his testimony by saying Oscar has to pay,he was then asked how should he pay?He replied,that was up to
the courts and they will abide by whatever decision the court takes,but he then reiterated that "Oscar has to pay for his crime."

The 29-year-old Paralympian gold medalist faces a minimum 15-year jail term after his manslaughter conviction for the 2013 killing, for which he originally received a 5-year sentence, was upgraded on appeal.

Called to testify by the lead state prosecutor in Pistorius’ sentencing hearing, a tearful and trembling Barry Steenkamp, said forgiving the runner was very hard.Correspondents say Mr Steenkamp's voice broke and tears streamed down his face as he said that he thought about his daughter "morning, noon and night... every hour".
The 73-year-old told Pretoria's High Court that he had had no contact with Pistorius, but said that wife June had been able to forgive the double-amputee athlete.
“It just devastated us; I ended up having a stroke… I just don’t wish that to anybody in this world. He has to pay for his crime,” the 73-year-old said.
Steenkamp said he and wife June had relied financially on their daughter, and he had hurt himself to try to relive the pain that his daughter went through:
“I jabbed myself with needles,” he said.
He asked the court to allow pictures of his daughter to be shown to the world as a deterrent to would-be killers.Barry Steenkamp, a tall man, looked broken on the stand as he reminded the world that this protracted legal case was about the death of his daughter, and losing her was the greatest pain he had ever known.
Tears streamed down his face as he told the court how he thought of Reeva every day and that even after all this time it felt like it had all happened yesterday. He described jabbing himself with needles from his diabetes treatment to see if he could feel the same pain his daughter must have felt the night she died.

In the aftermath of her death, he had a stroke and now has heart problems, which is why he had not been able to testify during the original trial. But he said he felt compelled to speak now.
Eyes red from crying and trembling, he said that he and his wife had been changed forever and all they wanted was justice - being forgiven, did not exonerate someone from a crime. "He has to pay for what he did," Mr Steenkamp repeated about four times.
Jonathan Scholtz, a psychologist called by Pistorius’ lawyer, told the court on Monday that the athlete was “a broken man” on medication for depression, anxiety and insomnia who should be hospitalised and not jailed.
But prosecutor Gerrie Nel said Pistorius had shown no remorse for shooting and killing Steenkamp when he fired four shots through a locked toilet door in his Pretoria home.
The case has prompted a fierce debate in a country beset by high levels of violent crime against women. Some rights groups have said the white athlete has received preferential treatment.
Earlier on Tuesday Ebba Gudny Gudmundsdottir, from Iceland, described the athlete as an inspiration to her 11-year old son, who has a similar disability to Pistorius.
The lower part of the athlete’s legs were amputated when he was a baby, and he is known as “Blade Runner” for the carbon-fibre prosthetics he wore when racing.
Gudmundsdottir told the court Pistorius often visited her family in Iceland and her family travelled to Manchester to see Pistorius race.
“It was an inspiration for him (her son) to see Oscar and the others run,” she said.
At his original trial, Pistorius had argued he mistook Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder.
His manslaughter conviction was upgraded to murder after an appeal heard by the Supreme Court, which ruled in March that Pistorius had exhausted all his legal options.
The original trial judge, Thokozile Masipa, is also presiding at the sentencing hearing, at Pretoria High Court.
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