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Bottled water with the face of Reeva Steenkamp is seen on the third day of sentencing proceedings of paralympian Oscar Pistorius, Wednesday, 15 October 2014. Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide for the killing of Steenkamp. Picture:Antoine de Ras/Independent Newspapers/ Pool
“Of course when you caused the death [of a loved one] by negligence… there is the grief of the loss, there is something far worse. There is that excruciating pain that you caused that death,” Barry Roux, SC for Pistorius said.
“It’s an emotional pain that is deep and will not go away.”
He said that Pistorius’s did not have a process of grief as a person who lost a loved one would normally have.
He said Pistorius disclosed his version in his bail application because he wanted to tell his story early on and not later so people would think he made up a story.
On September 12, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for the Valentines Day 2013, shooting of Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse. The court found him not guilty of murdering Steenkamp.
Pistorius shot Steenkamp through the locked door of the toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to emerge and attack him.
She was hit in the hip, arm, and head.
Roux said that Pistorius lost everything and what he was subjected to after Steenkamp’s death was far worse than any punishment.
Pistoius paid for 18 months for premeditated murder, he said.
“He found himself alone,” Roux said.
“No court punishment can be worse than the last 18 months.”
The State initially charged Pistorius with premeditated murder.
Pistorius was found guilty of firing a pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Johannesburg in January 2013. He was found not guilty of shooting through the open sunroof of a car in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012, and of illegal possession of ammunition.
– Sapa
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