Oscar Pistorius has used his first TV interview since shooting and killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013 to claim that she would not want him to waste his life behind bars.
The former Paralympian gave an interview to Britain‘s ITV, which is set to be aired Friday – just days before a South African judge will sentence Pistorius for murder.
“I don’t want to go back to jail; I don’t want to have to waste my life sitting here,” he said. “If I was afforded the opportunity of 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.”
He does, however, concede he wouldn’t argue with those who believe “they should lock me away and throw the key away.”
“Reeva was a fantastic person, but if their premise is based on the fact that I took her life intentionally, which has not been found then it’s a very sad thing.”
On February 14, 2013, Pistorius fired his 9mm gun four times through the bathroom door, killing Steenkamp. He has always claimed to have believed an intruder was on the other side, and was in fact only charged with manslaughter before the conviction was upgraded to murder following an appeal by state prosecutors.
In the interview, he says he had a “sense of calm” after realising Reeva wasn’t in bed, believing her to have crawled underneath. He got down on the floor, but couldn’t feel her.
“So I start pulling everything apart and I start saying like, Reeva, Reeva Reeva, and I’m like pulling my hand and I’m on my stumps now still, I was like pulling my hand across the curtain … thinking like ‘lord please tell me she’s hiding behind the curtains’. And I get to the end of the curtains and my heart just sinks.”
Prosecutors, on the other hand, have always dismissed his account as lies, saying instead that he murdered Steenkamp in a jealous rage after an argument about an ex-boyfriend. South Africa’s supreme court were also less-than-impressed, calling him vacillating, untruthful, and “a very poor witness”.
The charge of murder carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in South Africa. He faces sentencing next month.
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Getty / Pool.
