Model’s uncle blasts Pistorius for claiming his murdered girlfriend would NOT want him jailed in snivelling TV bid for sympathy
The former Paralympian said she would want him to live his life helping others less fortunate
Reeva Steenkamp’s uncle has slammed murderer Oscar Pistorius for suggesting she would not want him to go to prison.
Furious Mike Steenkamp has hit out at the disabled killer who has given his first televised interview to broadcaster ITV ahead of his sentencing.
Former Olympic athlete Pistorius gunned down the blonde model on Valentine’s day in 2013.
In a self-serving interview which will air on Friday at 9pm, the cold-blooded blade runner said he did not want to spend his life behind bars and that Reeva would not “want me to live that life."
But Reeva’s uncle told The Sun Online: “What punishment or sentence the court decides to give him is down to the judge, it has got nothing to do with Reeva.
“I would just say I think that is a pre-sentencing strategy before the sentence is given on July 6.
“He would say anything at this stage to try to influence the sentence. He can say anything about what Reeva may or may not think.’
“It’s up to the courts now.
“The most important thing to remember about what Reeva would have thought is that she would never have wanted Oscar to murder her.
“That is the fact of the matter, the only important fact.
“He can say a million things about what she may or may not think but the most important thought she would have had is that she would not have wanted to die at his hand.”
Mr Steenkamp's daughter, Kim Martin, gave evidence alongside Reeva’s father, Barry, at Pistorius’ sentencing hearing last week.
Mrs Martin described how she had witnessed her father ‘cry for the very first time’ when his niece was shot dead by Pistorius.
At the sprinter’s first sentencing hearing, Mrs Martin - a mother of two - said she was appearing at the court case ‘as Reeva’s voice’.
She said: “I saw him cry for the second time when he heard that I had to testify again.
“It’s very unfair what our family has been put through. Losing a family member that was such a big part of our lives in the way that we did.”
In his first TV interview since his conviction was upgraded to murder, Pistorius appeared desperate for sympathy as he recounted the killing and his desire to avoid prison.
Teary-eyed and hobbling on his stumps, he said his former girlfriend would want him to have a shot at redemption.
He said: "I don't want to go back to jail. I don't want to have to waste my life sitting there. If I was afforded the opportunity at redemption, I would like to help the less fortunate like I had in my past.
"I would like to believe that if Reeva could look down upon me - that she would want me to live that life."
The Olympic athlete went on: “I can smell the blood. I can feel the warmness of it on my hands.
"And to know that that’s your fault, that that’s what you’ve done . . .
“At times I don’t feel like I should have the right to live for taking someone else’s life.
“What is difficult is dealing with the charge of murder.”
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South African Pistorius, 29, fired four bullets through a locked toilet door at his home in Pretoria on Valentine’s Day 2013, claiming he thought 29-year-old model Reeva was an intruder.
The Olympian, who wears special blades to sprint, is under house arrest while awaiting sentence this month after his manslaughter conviction was upgraded on appeal to murder.
In his first interview since then, he said: “I don’t know if she felt pain or what she felt, but it was terrible.”
He went on to recount the moment he gunned her down.
"I heard a noise at the toilet and before I knew it I’d fired four shots.
"I opened the toilet door and immediately when I saw Reeva she was over the toilet. And I [starts crying], at that point, I knew that I’d killed her. I knew that she was dead. And I went down on my knees and pulled her onto me.
"And I put her on the bathroom floor and I pull the curtain.. [placing] the towel down for her head.
"And I just see blood and it’s just blood everywhere. It’s just blood everywhere... So much blood and I don’t know what to do.
"I’m trying to pick her up but there’s so much blood I can’t stand up. And I thought Reeva had started breathing, so I had my fingers in her mouth and I was trying to give her mouth to mouth, but there was so much blood.
"I did take Reeva’s life and I have to live with that. I can smell the blood. I can feel the warmness of it on my hands. And to know that that’s your fault, that that’s what you’ve done.
"And I understand the pain people feel, that loved her and miss her. I feel that same pain.
"I feel that same hate for myself. I feel that same difficulty in understanding this. And I look back and I think, I always think – how did this possibly happen? I think, how could this have happened? How could this have happened?"
Oscar Pistorius: The Interview is on ITV tomorrow at 9pm.