Pistorius tells South Africa court Steenkamp would want him to be freed

Paralympian argues the girlfriend he killed would want him to be free to do charity work.

Paralympics sprinter and double-amputee Ooscar Pistorius leaving the High Curt in Pretoria, South Africa on June 14, 2016 as he awaits sentencing on July 6. Themba Hadebe / Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG // Convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius has said he believes his late girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp would want him to devote his life to charity rather than return to prison for killing her.

The former Paralympian is awaiting a court decision on whether he should be sent back to jail after he was found guilty of murder. But in what some may regard as a novel line of argument, Pistorius said his late girlfriend would want him to devote himself to charity.

In an interview with the UK television channel ITN, Pistorius 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 of redemption, I would like to help the less fortunate. I would like to believe that if Reeva could look down upon me that she would want me to live that life.”

In a case that shocked the world, Pistorius, 29, shot Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013, claiming he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet. He was initially found guilty of culpable homicide — equivalent to manslaughter — and spent only a year in jail. But that verdict was overturned on appeal and in March, Pistorius was convicted of murder

In excerpts of the TV transcript released by ITN, Pistorius relives the night of the killing, saying, “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. 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 look back and I think, I always think — how did this possibly happen?

He described how he believed there was an intruder in the house who was just seconds from entering their bedroom. An “instant fear” drove him to grab his gun, a high-calibre pistol, from under his bed and walk on his stumps towards the bathroom, he said.

“All of a sudden I hear a noise, at the toilet. I presumed it was the toilet door opening 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. I knew that she was dead. And I went down on my knees and pulled her onto me.”

He insists he did not kill her intentionally, saying, “Reeva was a fantastic person, but if (people believe) that I took her life intentionally, which has not been found, then it’s a very sad thing,”

At the sentencing hearing and in the interview, Pistorius, a double amputee since childhood, walked unsteadily on his stumps to demonstrate his physical vulnerability at the moment he says he thought the couple were under threat from an intruder.

He wept during he the interview, holding his head in his hands and telling how he was verbally abused by a shopper when he went to buy groceries recently.

Psychologists have given expert testimony in court describing Pistorius as deeply depressed but the prosecution pointed out he had not been too ill to grant the |TV interview.

In court last week, Steenkamp’s father Barry broke down during his testimony as he called for Pistorius to “pay for his crime” of murdering Reeva, a model and law graduate.

The High Court in Pretoria is due to pronounce sentencing on Pistorius on July 6. the UTN interview will be shown on Friday.

* Agence France Presse