The question Oscar Pistorius refused to answer: how a private conversation between Reeva Steenkamp’s father and the Paralympic killer can finally be revealed… as he is released after ten years

Reeva Steenkamp’s father asked Oscar Pistorius to swear on his family’s lives that he had not deliberately killed his daughter, but he was unable to answer, MailOnline has learned.

Pistorius, 37, who was granted his freedom yesterday after serving more than half of his 13-year sentence, was confronted by Mr Steenkamp who begged him to be honest during a private meeting held in June last year.

Pistorius agreed to meet the Steenkamps in prison as part of South Africa’s victims-offenders dialogue programme. The killer had to convince Mr Steenkamp that he acknowledged the damage he had caused.

Pistorius was flown from Pretoria to a detention center near their home in Port Elizabeth. Reeva’s mother decided that she felt she could not meet him because of the mental torture he had put her through and the anger she still carried. But her husband finally wanted to find out the truth.

At Mr Steenkamp’s request, the full details of the conversation have remained private until now.

Since Reeva’s murder, Pistorius has been strongly supported by his close-knit family, particularly his brother Carl and London-based sister Aimée, who all backed his claims that he accidentally shot Reeva in the belief that an intruder had entered his home. at home while the couple slept.

Mr Steenkamp, ​​who was 80, strongly believed the shooting was calculated because his daughter wanted to end the relationship, but he listened intently to Pistorius’ pleas of innocence when the Blade Runner broke down and cried.

But Mr Steenkamp revealed: ‘I spoke to him and told him he was lying.

‘I looked straight at him, but he couldn’t look me in the eye.

“I said, ‘You have a brother and a sister.’ About their lives… are you telling me the truth’?

Pistorious was unable to answer, with Mr Steenkamp saying: ‘He just put his head down… and I left.’

Mr Steenkamp, ​​who had longed for a decade to hear Pistorius finally reveal that he had a murder on his mind when he opened fire on Reeva, said his silence at that crucial moment spoke volumes about his guilt.

‘If he had admitted it, he would have felt differently. That part of her would be gone. He will have to live with his evil secret.’

He said he never had the urge to hit the man who took the life of his only daughter.

‘It wouldn’t have been worth it. I would have rather gone into the ring with Tyson Fury… I would have felt better.”

Mr Steenkamp, ​​who was in poor health and had suffered a stroke, told Mail Online that the moment of the shooting, as described by Pistorius, was ‘complete nonsense’.

He said, ‘I believe there was something before it. There must have been quite an argument.

‘Her clothes were thrown out the window and found outside. She tried to leave, but she couldn’t jump out of the window.’

He and Ms Steenkamp said the height of the balcony to the ground at Pistorius’ Pretoria home prevented Reeva from escaping and that “she would have been left in a wheelchair.”

Mrs Steenkamp continues: ‘Reeva must have thought ‘can I do that?’, but if she had done that, at least she would still be alive.’

Ms Steenkamp said that despite being a free man, Pistorius would be haunted by Reeva for the rest of his life.

She added: “He will see her face every time he closes his eyes. Apparently he barely sleeps without meds because he clearly sees her face and it will stay there forever.”

Ms Steenkamp said one of her daughter’s two mobile phones was still missing and both were with her on the night of her slaughter. Her handbag had still not been found.

“There’s a lot more to the story,” she added.

In her impact statement at Pistorius’ parole hearing, she said she believed the athlete had taken the life of not only her daughter, but also her husband.

“I have no doubt that Barry died of a broken heart. No parent should have to bury a child, especially not in the circumstances surrounding Reeva’s death.

‘After Reeva’s death, Barry and I, both devastated, with whatever emotional reserves were left, tried to care for and support each other.

“My dear Barry left this world devastated by the thought that he had failed to protect his daughter and therefore his role as a father, as he perceived it.

“The pain caused by Reeva’s cowardly murder included more than just emotional trauma. It also included trauma that manifested itself physically, as was evident in the accelerated deterioration of the health of both Barry and myself.”

A United Nations-backed campaign against gender-based violence, backed by Ms Steenkamp, ​​begins today and the Pistorius killing of Reeva is expected to be used heavily by protesters to support the 16-day project in South Africa.

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that begins today to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and will continue until December 10, Human Rights Day.

The campaign was started by activists at the inauguration of the Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991. The campaign is used by individuals and organizations around the world as an organizing strategy to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.