Online Reporter
IT was the murder which shocked the world.
And, when Valentine’s Day arrives this month, it will mark a DOZEN years to the day when South African athlete Oscar Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his home in Pretoria.
A lot has happened since that night when the man nicknamed the ‘Blade Runner” pulled the trigger, fired four shots and changed his world forever.
He has since served time in prison, after being convicted of murder before being released on parole after serving nine years, he is trying to rebuild his life again and has even found a new girlfriend.
Reeva’s family is still battling to deal with the tragic loss of its child and her father Barry Steenkamp died in his sleep in September 2023, at the age of 80.
Pistorious was a global sports superstar, known around the world for the futuristic prosthetic legs he wore while competing in international track and field events.
But, on February 14, 2013, the professional sprinter’s life changed when he shot and killed his 29-year-old girlfriend Reeva.
Pistorius claimed he killed Reeva by mistake, after he thought he heard an intruder enter his bathroom in the middle of the night.
Prosecutors, however, alleged Pistorius fatally shot Reeva after an argument.
Before his trial and conviction, Pistorius was an international sports celebrity famous for wearing curved, carbon-fiber “blade” prosthetics on both legs when he ran.
He was born with a birth defect known as fibular hemimelia, which meant he was missing the fibula bones in both of his calves.
Following the advice of doctors, his parents decided to have his legs amputated below the knees when he was 11 months old.
As a toddler, he learned to walk on fiberglass pegs. He was just 17 when he competed in his first Paralympic Games in Athens, winning gold in the 200-metre event and bronze in the 100-metre race.
In 2012, Pistorius made history as the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics when he ran at the Summer Games in London.
Six months after the London Games, in the early morning hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, Pistorius fired four shots from a licensed 9mm pistol through the locked door of a toilet cubicle inside a bathroom at his home. S
Reeva was inside and died from the gunshot wounds almost instantly.
One bullet hit her right hip, another in her right arm and one in her head.
Pistorius did not dispute that he shot and killed Steenkamp. But he and prosecutors disagreed on exactly what happened that night.
In November 2017, an appeals court increased Pistorius’ sentence to 15 years, more than double the lower court’s sentence.
He was given credit for the time he had already served, which brought the time down to 13 years and five months. He was granted parole and released from prison in January 2024.
Since then, he has made a sporting comeback by competing in the Ironman 70.3 event in Durban.
The event comprised a 2km swim, 90km cycle ride and 21km run.
It has also been reported that Pistorius in a relationship with family friend Rita Greyling.
“He is slowly trying to reintegrate into society but that is being done through families that his family have been close to for decades and is slowly slowly. The word on the street for three months now is that he is dating again,” a source told Network 24. – mirror/aetv/H-Metro Reporter
