Parents Call for Daughter's Killer to Stay Behind Bars as Parole Approaches

On the tenth anniversary of the murder of South African model Reeva Steenkamp, her parents are now calling for her killer to stay behind bars for life. Former athlete Oscar Pistorius—who was convicted of Steenkamp’s 2013 murder and may be eligible for parole in the coming weeks—alleges he did not intentionally shoot his girlfriend, and instead mistook her for an intruder when he shot her through a bathroom door. Her parents, who initially said they forgave Pistorius during his trial, are now calling for him to be denied parole and stay behind bars for life on account of denying he intentionally murdered their daughter. Steenkamp’s father told Mail Online that he met Pistorius in prison last year; the former athlete reportedly broke down in tears as he read a letter from Steenkamp’s mother—who did not attend the meeting—yet still refused to concede he killed the model intentionally. “I told Oscar directly that he had shot my daughter deliberately and he denied it. He stuck to his story that he thought it was an intruder. After all these years we are still waiting for him to admit he did it in anger. That is all we wanted,” Barry Steenkamp said. “If he told me the truth, he would have been a free man by now and I would have let the law take its course over his parole. But I was wasting my time. He is a murderer. He should remain in jail.”