This was said by a close relative of the Steenkamps yesterday
after the second day of sentencing proceedings in the Pretoria High Court.
Speaking to The Times outside court, the relative said the parents
regarded the offer — made shortly before the resumption of the trial this week
— as nothing more than an attempt to buy their silence. and stop them
testifying against him.
“It’s as simple as that. How else do you perceive it? Just days before
sentencing starts, Pistorius makes this offer. Why now?
“They would not accept it. Not after what he did. Not after what he put
her parents through.”
Steenkamp’s mother, June, is expected to testify this week in
aggravation of sentence.
The offer came to light after Annette Vergeer, a probation officer
testifying about Pistorius’s remorse and suitability for correctional
supervision, stunned the court when she revealed that for the past 18-months
Pistorius had been paying Steenkamp’s parents R6000 a month for the past 18
months.
“It is a known fact that there is no tool to measure true remorse. In
this particular matter, the accused verbally expressed remorse. He cried
throughout, expressed the need to grieve,” she said in a report read to the
court.
“It is submitted that, taking his verbal expression, together with his
tendering of an apology to the deceased’s family, together with his payment of
a voluntary amount to the deceased’s parents [and] his offering of a further
payment to her parents shows that the accused is indeed remorseful,” said
Vergeer.
The Steenkamps, through their lawyer Dup de Bruyn, approached
Pistorius’s lawyers in March last year to say they had fallen on hard times.
The monthly payments began weeks after Pistorius shot Steenkamp in his
Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day last year.
De Bruyn, speaking after the court proceedings, said the payments,
which Pistorius had asked to be kept confidential, stopped last month after the
family’s situation changed. De Bruyn attributed this to “deals I arranged”.
He declined to elaborate but the deals are believed to include
exclusive interviews with media.
“The money was originally paid because at that stage the family was
facing severe financial difficulties. They didn’t want money, but they had no
choice.
“They didn’t ask for money, Pistorius offered,” De Bruyn he said.
He added that arrangements were being made to repay the money the
Steenkamps had received and that the family would not pursue a civil claim
against Pistorius.
“All they want is closure.”
Pistorius’s manager, Peet van Zyl — who yesterday finished
testifying in mitigation of sentence — Pistorius's sentencing, said
outside court it was Pistorius who had approached the Steenkamps.
“He went to them out of the kindness of his heart …
because he is a generous person.
“Those payments were made to June. They were meant for monthly living
expenses. I don’t know what they ended up doing with the money.”
Van Zyl said the payments were received with icy silence.
“There was not even a ‘thank you’.”
Asked about the offer of R375,000, offer, Van Zyl said he had no
knowledge of it.
“What I can say is there were no other intentions behind these payments
other than kindness.”
Vergeer, testifying on what she said were appalling conditions in South
Africa's prisons, recommended that, given Pistorius’s disability, he would be
vulnerable to attacks and sexual assault in prison.
She said imprisonment would not be beneficial to him or society at
large.
“He is a broken man and he will be even more broken by imprisonment,”
she said.
Prosecutor Gerrie Nel hit back, forcing Vergeer to admit that she had
not been inside a prison in years and that statistics in her report were
gleaned from the internet.
“You speak of these conditions but do you know of South Africa’s
private prisons in which there are specialised prison hospital sections and
single-cell options?”
Nel put it to Vergeer that: “You speak of the financial offers but do
you know Mrs Steenkamp rejected it as ‘blood money’ and refused it?”
Proceedings continue today.
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