Oscar Pistorius will have served seven years in prison for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp when he becomes eligible for parole next month. It's a day that has come too soon for Steenkamp's parents, June and Barry, who are speaking out on the 10-year anniversary of their daughter’s Feb. 14, 2013, killing. In an ITV interview, Barry Steenkamp reveals he met with Pistorius last year as part of South Africa's victim-offender dialogue program but cut the meeting short when he didn't get the answers that he wanted from the killer. Though the former Paralympic athlete was remorseful and "tears came into his eye," he continued to deny that he deliberately shot his girlfriend in anger. "It was really traumatizing for myself and for June," says Barry Steenkamp, 80.
June Steenkamp, 76, did not attend the meeting—"I was actually afraid of what I would do if I went there," she says—but she did write Pistorius a letter, saying he'd taken away "the most precious gift." In an earlier interview with the Daily Mail, the couple said they hoped Pistorius would remain in prison. But Barry Steenkamp tells ITV that he's "not against the parole taking its course" and will determine how he feels about a possible release at a later date. Pistorius, who has always claimed he mistook Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder, was found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to six years in prison in 2014. On appeal in 2017, however, prosecutors secured a murder conviction and a sentence for 13 years and five months in prison. As a result, he will be eligible for parole within weeks, CNN reports. (More Oscar Pistorius stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
