State’s payment version wrong – Pistorius family

“The version presented in court by Mr [Gerrie] Nel regarding the events of payment is not accurate,” Anneliese Burgess said.

“The defence team will give a statement to the court tomorrow regarding the accurate position.”

Burgess did not provide more details.

The High Court in Pretoria heard on Tuesday that Reeva’s mother June Steenkamp rejected a R375,000 payment from the paralympian as “blood money”.

“She rejects that, she doesn’t want blood money,” prosecutor Nel told probation officer and social worker Annette Vergeer during cross-examination.

Vergeer earlier presented to the court her report on Pistorius, which the defence had paid her to compile.

In it she recommended that Pistorius gets three years of correctional supervision and community service for culpable homicide.

Nel told Vergeer that Pistorius got R375,000 from selling his car. It was paid into the trust account of the Steenkamps’ lawyer.

After court proceedings the Steenkamp’s lawyer, Dup du Bruyn, told reporters that Pistorius had been paying R6000 per month for 18 months to the Steenkamps who “needed the money to live”.

“They needed the money, they needed to live, but they are going to pay the money back,” Du Bruyn said.

“When he initially offered the money they accepted the offer because they needed the money but they will return it now. When he started giving them money the Steenkamps wanted to disclose it but Mr Pistorius wanted to keep it quiet.”

Du Bruyn said the monthly payments started in March last year and the last payment was made in September.

He said plans for civil claims against Pistorius had also been abandoned because the Steenkamps wanted closure.

“Mr and Mrs Steenkamp do not want any money. The offer has been made and it has been rejected,” Du Bruyn said.

“There will be no civil case. They want closure and they want this to be over.”

He said he had made certain deals but would not elaborate on what the deals were.

On September 12, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for the Valentine’s Day 2013 shooting of his girlfriend Reeva 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.

The court on Tuesday heard argument from the defence that sending him to jail would “break” him, and for the prosecution, that his disability was not an excuse to avoid going to prison for killing Steenkamp.

Pistorius was also found guilty of firing a pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Johannesburg in January 2013 and not guilty of shooting through the open sunroof of a car in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012.

– Sapa